Rent Henry James Collection: The Ghostly Rental, Daisy Miller, The Altar of the Dead

Synopsis

The Ghostly Rental: Henry James wrote many excellent ghost stories, his most famous being, The Turn of the Screw. In The Ghostly Rental, a newcomer in town, who loves to walk for exercise, comes upon a deserted rural road. He follows the road and comes upon a house that immediately strikes him as "simply haunted." He is determined to get into the house and find out the truth about it. What he finds out turns out to be quite different than what he expected. Daisy Miller: Daisy Miller is one of Henry James' shorter and earlier novels. Written in 1878, it portrays the confused courtship of a headstrong American girl by Winterbourne, a compatriot of hers who is much more sophisticated. His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates they meet in Switzerland and Italy. Her lack of understanding regarding social mores of the society she so desperately wishes to enter ultimately leads to a very unexpected ending. In addition to being a very good story, the novel serves as both a psychological description of the mind of a young woman and an analysis of the traditional views of a society to a clear outsider. This continues to be one of James' most popular works. The Altar of the Dead: "The Altar of the Dead" was first published in the collection Terminations in 1895. It is a fable of life and death significance which explores what happens when a man tries to keep the remembrance of his dead friends, to save them from being forgotten entirely in the rush of everyday events. He meets a woman who shares his ideals, only to find that the past places what seems to be an impassable barrier between them. Although James was not a religious man, at least in the conventional sense, this story shows a deep spirituality in its treatment of mortality and the transcendent power of unselfish love. Critics have generally rated this tale very high among James' works, with some calling it a "glorious fable," "magnificently written," and "one of his finest." James himself proudly placed the story at the head of volume 17 of the New York Edition (1907 - 09) of his fiction, before even The Beast in the Jungle. The tale also appeared in a number of later anthologies.

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