A Small Boy and Others
by Henry James
'A Small Boy and Others ' Summary
This memoir tells of a precocious boy who loved the sights and sounds of his childhood but felt reticent about full participation in life. The note is sounded from the first chapters, as James recounts the limitations—and rewards—of the child he was:
"For there was the very pattern and measure of all he was to demand: just to be somewhere—almost anywhere would do—and somehow receive an impression or an accession, feel a relation or a vibration. He was to go without many things, ever so many—as all people do in whom contemplation takes so much the place of action; but everywhere...he was to enjoy more than anything the so far from showy practice of wondering and dawdling and gaping: he was really, I think, much to profit by it."
James clearly suffered from a sense of his inferiority in the "showy", active parts of life. His older brother William always seemed superior in ability; his classmates scorned his hopelessness at math and science; even at a party he felt too embarrassed to join in the dancing.
But he still observed and fantasized about all his family and his surroundings had to offer. When a cousin of his was told "don't make a scene," he suddenly realized that scenes could be made by telling a story or inventing a play. He went often to the theater and fell forever under its spell. His family met William Thackeray and Charles Dickens on their American tours, and James even remembered Thackeray mock-scolding his sister Alice for her crinoline dress: "Crinoline? I was suspecting it! So young and so depraved!"
In fact, for all his surface diffidence, James harbored almost Napoleonic dreams of glory as an artist. Near the close of A Small Boy and Others he tells how, in much later years, he dreamed of routing a monstrous attacker and chasing him away through the halls of the Louvre, which he had seen as a child. The small boy, as hesitant and uncertain as he might seem, would triumph over his fears and develop his superb aptitude for narrative fiction.
Book Details
Author
Henry James
America, Britain
Henry James was born in New York City on April 15, 1843, into a wealthy and intellectually stimulating family. His father, Henry James Sr., was a Swedenborgian philosopher and his mother, Mary Roberts...
More on Henry JamesDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The American Diary of a Japanese Girl by Yone Noguchi
The book provides a unique and insightful perspective on the cultural exchange between Japan and the United States at a time when the two countries we...
The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson by DeWitt Peters
Kit Carson was a famous hunter, trapper, mountain man, guide - an American icon. Stories about him abounded in popular contemporary literature, but mo...
Out of the Shadow by Rose Gollup Cohen
"A young Jewish girl's journey from Russia to America, and her struggle to find her place in the world." In this memoir, Rose Gollup Cohen recounts h...
Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett
In this short book, the British Naval historian, Julian Stafford Corbett, chronicles the adventurous career of Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), the farm...
Joseph Conrad by Hugh Walpole
This is a literary biography of Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) who is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English. He was granted British nation...
Half a Century by Jane Grey Swisshelm
A woman's extraordinary journey through the turbulent times of the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Jane Grey Swisshelm's autobiography, Ha...
Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by Johan Huizinga
An elegantly written biography of Desiderius Erasmus describing his life, thought and character as a scholar who hoped to awaken "good learning" and t...
The Story of John Wesley Told to Boys and Girls by Marianne Kirlew
Through vivid storytelling and engaging prose, Kirlew brings to life the incredible achievements and enduring legacy of this influential figure. From...
Lucretia Borgia by Ferdinand Gregorovius
According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day. Lucretia Borgia is the most unfortunate woman in modern history. Is this because she wa...
Voltaire and the French Enlightenment by Will Durant
In this Little Blue Book Number , Will Durant describes François-Marie Arouet, the writer, historian, and philosopher known as Voltaire (1694-1778) as...
Reviews for A Small Boy and Others
No reviews posted or approved, yet...