Reviews

Roderick Hudson by Henry James

sarahjsnider's review against another edition

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5.0

The sentences are not as quite as involved or virtuostic as they became later in the author's career, so this positively chugs along. I was looking for an escape from current events, but I kept considering how many resources have been devoted to male talents who look the part and how many more deserving ones have been overlooked.

rubygranger's review against another edition

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1.0

This is the first American book written between 1850 and 1950 which I decidedly did not like. It does not succumb to a typically "American" style of writing, and is instead more European (which maybe makes sense because it's set in Italy). The narrator is highly observational, and describes his observations in great detail. But, rather than showing us what they look like, he tells us -- and this quickly got tiresome. I just really did not enjoy reading it.
It's similar to The Picture of Dorian Gray in some ways (which makes sense because they were friends), but, to me, it just read like a very bad version of Wilde's masterpiece.

lnatal's review against another edition

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3.0

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

From BBc Radio 4:
Love Henry James: Roderick Hudson
adapted by Lavinia Murray
Rowland Mallet - a wealthy Bostonian bachelor becomes patron to a young sculptor, Roderick Hudson, and takes him from the US to Rome to study and develop his art. Their conflicting and complex relationship is heightened in the 'old world' as Rowland falls in love with Mary Garland, Roderick's fiance, and Roderick becomes involved in a destructive relationship with the beautiful Christina Light.

Episode 2 of 2
Although engaged to Mary, in the US, Roderick has fallen head over heels for beautiful socialite Christina Light, and it's causing mayhem.
Roderick does all he can to steer him back to Mary, though he's in love with Mary himself. Obsession, love & desire intermingle as old and new worlds collide.

Produced and directed by Pauline Harris

Written in 1875 this was one of Henry James's early novels, his second.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08z8zvq

4* Daisy Miller
3* Washington Square
4* The Ambassadors
4* The Turn of the Screw
4* The Wings of the Dove
4* The Portrait of a Lady
2* The Bostonians
2* The Real Thing
4* The Aspern Papers
3* What Maisie Knew
4* A Little Tour in France
3* The Madonna of the Future
2* Lady Barbarina and Other Tales
4* The Beast in the Jungle
3* The Jolly Corner
3* The Art of Fiction
3* Roderick Hudson
TR The Tragic Muse
TR The Pupil
TR The Other House
TR The Spoils of Poynton
TR The Princess Casamassima
TR Hawthorne
TR The Great Good Place
TR The Art of the Novel
TR The Middle Years
TR The Golden Bowl
TR Nona Vincent
TR Italian Hours
TR The Ivory Tower
TR Ghost Stories
TR The Outcry
TR Collected Travel Writings: The Continent

About Henry James:
3* The Real Henry James by Philip Horne
3* Henry James at Work by Theodora Bosanquet
TR Portraits from life by Ford Madox Ford
TR The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad by F.R. Leavis
TR The Realists: Eight Portraits: by C.P. Snow
TR A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women & His Art by Lyndall Gordon