The Jolly Corner

Henry James (1843-1916) is among the most prominent turn-of-the-century writers, spanning literary schools (American and British) and eras (Realism and Modernism). Born to a family of intellectuals in New York, James spent time in various European countries growing up, and his literary influences included French writers like Honoré de Balzac as well as Americans like Nathaniel Hawthorne. James finally settled in England in 1875 and became a British citizen in 1915, and his works contain many notable characters who are expatriates like himself; critics have described James’s writing as “trans-Atlantic.” Many of James’s works, “The Jolly Corner” included, center on characters attempting to navigate the differences between the “young” nation of America and the “old” societies of Europe. This tension informs Spencer Brydon’s dissatisfaction with the industrialization of New York, which Alice Staverton is better able to embrace because she is less tied to any notion of “traditionalism.” “The Jolly Corner” also fits within James’s catalog of ghost stories. His most notable work in this genre is The Turn of the Screw, which also features a haunted family home.

Although James is best known as the novelist who penned works such as The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors, he began his career as a writer of short stories and never fully abandoned the form. “The Jolly Corner,” written late in James’s career, also marked James’s first visit to America in 25 years. He wrote the story after returning to England, the idea of Brydon’s journey “home” apparently inspired by James’s own. “The Jolly Corner” also evidences the way James’s style was beginning to shift from Realism toward Modernism at this time. The first half of the story largely consists of Brydon reflecting on New York and its changes in vivid detail. This attention to the minutiae of setting is typical of Realism, which (as its name suggests) seeks to produce an accurate portrait of human experience and society. By contrast, Modernism’s focal point is fragmentation—a break with the past and often with one’s own self, as is seen in Brydon’s encounter with his alter ego and the story’s broader exploration of The Discontinuity of Identity. James thus combines a Realist approach to external setting with a Modernist take on his characters’ psychology.