A major figure in the history of literature,
Henry James was a novelist, short-story writer, and critic. He explored several themes extensively. The relationship between innocence and experience (especially as exemplified by the differences between the exuberant but uncultured Americans and the highly cultivated Europeans) is evident in
The American and
The Passionate Pilgrim. He also wrote about the dilemma of the artist in an alien society and the achievement of self-knowledge.
