Books

First edition in book form, handsomely bound, and one of 750 copies. The Princess Casamassima is one of James's "three formidable novels" composed during the 1880s, standing alongside The Bostonians (1886) and The Tragic Muse (1890) as demonstrating "a creative vigor and willingness to experiment that became distinctive watermarks of his career" (Gargano, p. 120). "The Princess Casamassima, a panoramic novel with a vivid English setting, documents a sensitive bookbinder's attempt to come to terms with his illegitimate birth and social disadvantages through involvement in subversive political action. Even more naturalistic than its predecessor [The Bostonians], The Princess reads today like an elegy for the beauty and traditions painfully evolved by civilized society and now endangered by what Yeats called 'mere anarchy'" (ibid., p. 122). It was initially serialized in the Atlantic Monthly from September 1885 to October 1886. Three vols, octavo (183 x 119 mm). Mid-20th-century blue half morocco by Bayntun, spines lettered in gilt, gilt petals on raised bands, compartments framed in gilt, blue cloth sides, single gilt fillet trimming sides and corners, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. Skilfully obscured library blind stamp to initial leaves of each volume. Spines uniformly and lightly sunned, rubbing to cloth, offsetting to outer leaves else clean, complete with half-titles and rear adverts. A very good copy indeed. Edel & Laurence A29a; Supino 29. James W. Gargano, "The Middle Years", A Companion to Henry James Studies, 1993.

The Princess Casamassima is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. The novel is a story about London bookbinder Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The book combines themes of political activism and social reform with James's characteristic psychological insight.