The Catholic Side of Henry James

The Catholic Side of Henry James is the first to reveal the profound Catholic imagery in James'' work. Edwin Fussell argues that Henry James though not a card-carrying Catholic was a fellow-traveling Catholic of a certain literary type. Fussell is not trying to turn James into a Closet Catholic but is rather intent on questioning conventional critical assumptions about James'' unquestioned secularity. He contends that the writer''s career began with narratives of Catholic conversion and ended with his masterpiece of Catholic eccentricity and alienation The Golden Bowl. With an enormously detailed knowledge of James'' novels tales letters and journals Fussell convincingly demonstrates the extent of the writer''s involvement with the ideas of Catholicism.