This book offers the first full-length study of Henry James's relationship with, and literary treatment of, New York. It shows how the city, whether observed or reimagined, always remained an essential component of James's identity. New York compelled James to confront both his status as an American-born male artist and his age's prevailing notions of gender, sexuality, class, citizenship, and success. Tracing James's attachment to the city and how it evolved during his lifetime, this book examines a wide range of James's works, from his short stories and novels to his non-fiction writing.

Leonardo Buonomo is Professor of American Literature at the University of Trieste, Italy. His principal area of specialization is nineteenth-century American literature, with a focus on transatlantic cultural relations and the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James. He is the author of Immigration, Ethnicity, and Class in American Writing, 1830-1860 (2014) and editor of The Sound of James: The Aural Dimension in Henry James’s Work (2021).