I just started reading The turn of the screw from Henry when this was uploaded! Easily the best KZfaqr when it comes to books, most in depth and insightful stuff on the platform but with no ego. Just great analysis and a passion for reading

You know it’s funny when I first really got serious about literature I would often confuse Henry Miller and Henry James. Such remarkable differences within the similarities and vice versa depending on who you ask. 📚 📖

Reading a late-stage James while in the midst of a feverish sickness is probably the best way to do it lol!

I’ve been struggling through finishing volume 1… I’ve hit the James wall but I’m like 6/8 done… ugh fine I’ll slog through the rest. Something about book 4 just made me forget how to read James, the circuitous conversation between Milly and Susan regarding why Condrip would want Milly to tell Kate she knew Merton.

That was cool! I just finished a short essay written by Henry James on his friend Ivan Turgenev. Well, one more nudged to the TBR list. Cheers :)

"Many who have been to Rooms forbidden the others, report seeing, inside these, a Door to at least one Room further, which may not be opened. The Penetralia of the Lodge are thus, even to those employed there, a region without a map." - M&D. It seems so much nuance can be opened up on the sentence level by writers like James and Pynchon. I think they have the key to the pentralia of the English language. A lot of the things you found here struck me as particularly insightful you might be interested in Helen Vendler's Paris Review interview from '96 "The phrase “close reading” sounds as if you’re looking at the text with a microscope from outside, but I would rather think of a close reader as someone who goes inside a room and describes the architecture. You speak from inside the poem as someone looking to see how the roof articulates with the walls and how the wall articulates with the floor. And where are the crossbeams that hold it up, and where are the windows that let light through?" Anyway you have a really interesting dialogue going on with ol' James here. The architecture and constellation analogies cannot be overstated.

Philip Roth said that great fiction "drives a wedge of consciousness into reality." James is an expert at this. His later works are novels of consciousness. These works can serve as a bridge from 19th century realism to 20th century modernists such as Proust, Woolf, and even Beckett. Thanks for this excellent discussion of The Wings of the Dove. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fact that James composed these last few novels primarily through dictation has always struck me as remarkable. Evidently, James could think out loud in this kind of elaborate, discursive prose.

I love that brushstrokes analogy. Will be stealing that!

One of my favorites. Nicely and thoughtfully presented. Your videos are illuminating. Cheers!

And I love seeing A Dance to the Music of Time on your glorious set of shelves!

Love the description of the characters as nodes of constellations that are rearranged throughout the novel. I’m currently rereading the recognitions and felt this description to be appropriate to Gaddis too. The recognitions opens with “the first turn of the screw” - pretty clear homage to James

I absolutely devoured The Turn of the Screw last year and loved every page! But this one seems so much more daunting.

Chris this video was so good! I love your channel because you have an understanding of great literature that goes way beyond anything one typically finds on the internet, and you offer this understanding with deep insight and knowledge, but always with humility. Even though I loved The Wings of The Dove before seeing this video, you have caused me to appreciate it even more. Thank you Chris for all you do!❤🎉😊

I’m reading The Turn of the Screw and am absolutely blown away, even though I have to read each line at least three times to understand what the hell the narrator is trying to say. Can’t wait to read more of his work. I’m thinking Washington Square will be next.

Thank you so much for this analysis--I have Portrait of a Lady but have not attempted it yet--many years ago I began to read it and did encounter tgat issue of needing to slow my brain velocity lol. Tge way you have described not only the work but the manner of reading the work is extremely edifying for those of us who might just need to tweak our perception a little.

Hi Chris. I immensely enjoy watching and listening to your reviews and learning about all the incredible books that you read. Thanks for sharing these videos, I look forward to more! Coming to the core of my comment, I am intrigued by the dense book marking system of labels with multiple colors that I observe in your videos and I am curious to learn about the principles that guide how you place them and what you write in them (assuming you do take notes on them). In general, I guess I am interested in learning about the etiquettes that you follow while reading a book. Would love to read your comments or probably watch a video where you cover some of those details! Cheers

Thank you, Chris! In the last two days I read two of your recommendations, both so superb that they will be placed on my “Transcendent Works” exalted shelf! (The Birds and Sickle) To say I’m grateful doesn’t even begin to cover it. THANK YOU! 😊

I left a comment recently suggesting you to do a video on Sorrentino’s novel “Mulligan Stew” since I’m re-reading it at the moment and it’s fantastic, and I noticed when I revisited your video “Q and A part IV,” you mentioned that you enjoyed the films of Fellini. As I was re-reading “Mulligan Stew,” I had the realization that there are some uncanny similarities between the themes and style of Fellini’s “8 1/2” and Sorrentino’s work, and I was wondering if you would agree or have ever considered it? Might be something fun to mention if you end up doing a video on the book as well!

As a lifelong horror fan I have read and loved 'The Turn of the Screw' and also loved 'Daisy Miller', will have to give this a read though to be honest I he's not really in my wheelhouse of books I tend to read and love.