English Hours is a book of travel writing by Henry James published in 1905. The book collected various essays James had written on England over a period of more than thirty years, beginning in the 1870s. The essays had originally appeared in such periodicals as The Nation, The Century Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Galaxy and Lippincott's Magazine. James wrote a new introduction for the book and extensively revised many of the essays to creat...
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English Hours is a book of travel writing by Henry James published in 1905. The book collected various essays James had written on England over a period of more than thirty years, beginning in the 1870s. The essays had originally appeared in such periodicals as The Nation, The Century Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Galaxy and Lippincott's Magazine. James wrote a new introduction for the book and extensively revised many of the essays to create a more coherent whole.
England was James' adopted country, so it is not surprising that the essays in English Hours are primarily positive and sometimes downright cheerful; the snobbish James was hardly aware of some aspects of 19th century England he might have found less agreeable, such as working-class agitation, which was widespread and highly visible at that time, but which he manages to ignore completely; his book should not be regarded as anything more than a severely blinkered view of English life. The essay on London which begins...
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