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The Sense of the Past: History and Historical Criticism

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Palgrave Advances in Henry James Studies

Part of the book series: Palgrave Advances ((PAD))

Abstract

Henry James was not a writer of historical novels, yet the past is often intensely present in his works. As Virginia Woolf noted in her review of his memoirs, James’s “natural atmosphere and his most abiding mood” is the “mellow light which swims over the past,” and “the beauty which suffuses even the commonest little figures of that time” (“Old Order” 168). The shadows of the past playing against the backdrop of ancient cities and faded drawing-rooms indeed contribute to the mood in James’s writing. But in James the passage of time also raises philosophical questions related to history: What is history? How is knowledge of history possible, and what is its meaning? These, then, are among the questions we shall explore, in addition to surveying a range of some of the most significant critical material in this area.

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Authors
  1. Gert Buelens
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  2. Celia Aijmer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Peter Rawlings

Copyright information

© 2007 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Buelens, G., Aijmer, C. (2007). The Sense of the Past: History and Historical Criticism. In: Rawlings, P. (eds) Palgrave Advances in Henry James Studies. Palgrave Advances. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288881_10

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