Henry James, Impressionism, and the Public

“Focusing on the tendency in Impressionism to trouble distinctions between the public and the private, Daniel Hannah’s sophisticated and compelling book opens up broad new views of much that makes Henry James’s writing meaningful and much that has yet to be seen in the problem of Impressionism.” –Jesse E. Matz, Kenyon College, USA

“Hannah effectively knits together two well-established strands of critical enquiry in James’ studies that prove mutually supportive. The first considers the author’s myriad aesthetic debts and affiliations: to visual culture and portraiture, and to the aestheticist discourses of Pater and Wilde … The second … addresses James’s complex engagement with late-nineteenth-century contexts and cultures of exposure, documenting his responses to and negotiations of the literary marketplace and reading public.” –Review of English Studies

“Hannah’s text is a valuable addition to the body of work on literary impressionism, joining a large and ever-changing body of scholarship on a fascinating subject.” –English Literature in Transition

“An excellent book by Daniel Hannah illustrates how a familiar topic―James and impressionism―can be revitalized by a creative synthesis of close reading and historical research…A number of scholars have explored the contexts of ‘Franco-American impressionist painting’ and British aestheticism, but this book links cultural history with astute and original close readings, both of relatively neglected texts and those that have incited well-known debates.” –Sarah B. Daugherty, American Literary Scholarship