Collection of classic Henry James long stories, including The Velvet Glove, Mora Montravers, A Round of Visits, Crapy Cornelia, and The Bench of Desolation.

This volume was the last collection of tales published by James. When compiling it, in April and May 1910, he was enduring a period of depression, brought on, fundamentally, by overwork on, and poor sales figures of, his New York edition in 1907–1909. His brother William was already suffering the illness which would lead to his death in August and the two travelled to Bad Nauheim in Germany in June when William took the ‘cure’ – without apparent benefit.

Henry James, OM, son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author, one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.