"Rather Rude Jolts": Henry James, Serial Novels, and the Art of Fiction

Although the vast majority of Henry James's novels appeared first in monthly instalments in American and British periodicals, this aspect of James's literary career has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. This essay addresses this critical oversight by reading several of James's novels in terms of their periodical publication history and by examining James's public and private statements on this nineteenth-century publishing phenomenon. Such an analysis offers a more nuanced understanding of James's awareness of the possibilities and constraints of serialization, while providing insight into James's developing understanding of the art of fiction within the context of latenineteenth-century literary marketplace.