Reviews

The Beast In The Jungle by Henry James

sarahdngr's review

emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A man dreams of a special and great ominous fate that awaits him, and chaos ensues. Really enjoyed this one Henry James writes prose like no other.

sr_yancey's review

I really do love the way Henry James writes hauntings. This is the short story that the final (and my favorite) episode of Haunting of Bly Manor is based on. I need to go back to the episode having read its source material. There are a few patterns that come to mind that I never thought of before.

It’s interesting to have a story that works as a metaphor for depression written in this way. It aligns with how I see my own depression, so it’s interesting that it was written at the turn of the century. Beautifully done even if the writing style can be dry and overly complicated. I’m just not a fan of the writing from this era.

marinarasara's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

nyctophilickiwi's review

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

saeruh's review against another edition

1.0

(Read for my intro to lit class)
didn’t like it ❤️ everyone was so stupid and the scenes melted into one another with no clear distinctions of when they stopped or started

araichmente's review

emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

shellmarienelms's review

This story makes me want to shed a tear for Henry James

chadimus's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

bookiss's review

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

shoba's review

4.0

“Everything fell together, confessed, explained, overwhelmed; leaving him most of all stupefied at the blindness he had cherished. The fate he had been marked for he had met with a vengeance he had emptied the cup to the lees; he had been the man of his time, the man, to whom nothing on earth was to have happened. That was the rare stroke that was his visitation. So he saw it, as we say, in pale horror, while the pieces fitted and fitted. So she had seen it while he didn't, and so she served at this hour to drive the truth home. It was the truth, vivid and monstrous, that all the while he had waited the wait was itself his portion.”

I am not a fan of Henry James’ work but this novella proved to be the exception. I read it because it was referred to in first few pages of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

“…he had read Henry James' short story ‘The Beast in the Jungle.’ Oppenheimer was utterly transfixed by this tale of obsession and tormented egotism in which the protagonist is haunted by a premonition that he was ‘being kept for something rare and strange, possibly prodigious and terrible, that was sooner or later to happen.’”