"What would it have made of me?" The Unlived Life of Spencer Brydon in Henry James's "The Jolly Corner" - Tapa blanda

Research paper from the year 2012 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2, University of Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: "The Jolly Corner" is one of the last stories written by Henry James, in the famous style of his final years. The story shows the "complexity of his mind" through which his unique style developed. It also shows many connections to the author's own experiences. Like Spencer Brydon, James has also spent many years in Europe, and it can be argued that he also at some point felt haunted by his past and was concerned with the question of the unlived life. This paper will be trying to analyze and interpret the story on the basis of several secondary articles. As the theme of the "unlived life" in the text is mentioned by many critics, this will also be the focus of the analysis in this paper. First, the paper will provide some biographical information about Henry James, as well as background information on the literary period of American Realism, for which he played an important role. After a short plot summary, I will offer my own interpretation of the text.