On Writers and Writing: Selected Essays (New York Review Books)

Even though I find myself agreeing with the criticisms of literature put forward by Henry James, I find his prose convoluted and unnecessarily erudite. I think, perhaps being a gifted writer is a different skill set from being a literary critic. Perhaps he looks at all literature as a competition which he may be able to improve upon. Even when writing memorials for other authors, which are, in the main, laudatory, James can’t resist finding the fly in the ointment and so tempering his regard. He notes Shakespeare’s declination of power in The Tempest which seems rather an over reach. It is obvious to any reader that Our Mutual Friend is not Dickens at his best. It is interesting that James writes this as a twenty-two year old, yet unpublished writer.This reader feels that perhaps this book is best suited to Jamesian scholars who seek to understand his ethos and revel in his discernment. For the rest of us, let us glory in the fact that James did write his own great novels.