, the third volume of Henry James’s autobiographical writings, was unfinished at the time of his death. It was published posthumously in 1917. The first volume,
A Small Boy and Others, had been published in 1913, followed by the second,
Notes of a Son and Brother, in 1914. The three volumes, edited by Frederick W. Dupee, were published with the collective title
Henry James: Autobiographyin 1956.
The fifty pages of the incomplete The Middle Years were written as war was brewing in Europe and the opening metaphor is a military one as if James, under the new threat, is recalling the intensities and wastage of the American Civil War: youth is conceived as an “army” reluctantly marching into age, “the enemy’s country, the country of the general lost freshness”
864 words
Citation: Righelato, Pat. "The Middle Years". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 July 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=162, accessed 09 December 2024.]