In darkest James

the long version

"In July of 1906 Archibald Henderson could pronounce with perfect confidence that Henry James was "a master impressionist." But as short a time as six years earlier, James's critics lacked this term in their vocabulary, and struggled with the sophisticated art of James's developing impressionistic literary technique. In Darkest James discusses the reviewer's frustrated, often irritated, and even anguished attempts to render a satisfactory account of the sequence of artifacts in which James moved toward the perfection of his craft."--BOOK JACKET.