In this, the second volume of Leon Edel's superb edition of the letters, we see Henry James in his thirties, pursuing his writing in Paris and London and finding his first literary successes in Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady. The letters of these years, describing for family and friends in Boston the expatriate's days, reveal the usual wit and sophistication, but there is a new tone: James is relentlessly building a personal career and begins to see himself as a professional writer. Few other letters so fully document the process of an artist in the making.

James was a social success in London: in Mr. Edel's words, "England speedily opened its arms to him, as it does to anyone who is at ease with the world." The letters of this period pull us into the atmosphere of Victorian England, its drawing rooms, manors, and clubs, and James's keen American eyes give us views of this world probably unique in our literary annals. He used these observations to forge his great international theme, the confrontation of the Old and New Worlds.

Among his many accomplishments over some forty years devoted to James scholarship, Leon Edel is the author of the monumental five-volume Life of Henry James, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He is Citizens Professor of English at the University of Hawaii.

Other HUP Books by Henry James

• Henry James: Selected Letters
• The Letters of Henry James, Volume IV, 1895-1916
• The Letters of Henry James, Volume III, 1883-1895
• The Letters of Henry James, Volume I, 1843-1875

Other HUP Books by Leon Edel

• The Letters of Henry James, Volume I, 1843-1875
• The Letters of Henry James, Volume III, 1883-1895
• The Letters of Henry James, Volume IV, 1895-1916
• Henry James: Selected Letters