Setting the standard for a century's worth of criticism, Rebecca West diagnosed Henry James as an American who "could never feel at home until he was in exile" in this slim, readable biography, published just a few months after his death in 1916.

West boldly assesses Roderick Hudson as "not a good book," and displays remarkable foresight in describing Daisy Miller as a "sad and lovely" book that "will strike each new generation afresh." An early advocate of feminist principles, she has fascinating things to say about James's heroines, and her division of his work into early and late periods continues to be a basic principle of Jamesian scholarship.

One of the twentieth century's brightest minds, Rebecca West began her career as a public intellectual with this thoughtful and compelling study of a literary giant.