20. Narrative Heterogeneity as an Adjustable Fictional Lens in The American Scene

Henry James returned from England to the United States in late August 1904, after nearly a quarter of a century’s absence from his native land. As Leon Edel records in the last volume of James’s biography The Master: 1901-1916, James’s reasons for returning to the U.S. and for writing about his homeland were not uniform. His motives included personal nostalgia and artistic interest, as well as practical and financial considerations. In the period between 1902 and 1904, while James still resid..