Moral Form Of Relationship, The Henry James Novel

The turning point presented in Henry James's novels is an important feature of literature in 19th century. Henry James combined the times and himself, the tradition and the modernism very intelligently in his works. His innovation lies in the art of the modern novels achieved through his serious examination of traditional culture. To make inheritance, criticism and innovation is James's attitude when he faced the traditional and the modern literary arts. This paper will explore the transition and modernism showed in Henry James's novels form the perspective of morality and form.This paper is mainly divided into three parts. First, it will explore the cultural context of James's novels. James's novel theories and novel writings influenced by the literary traditions from both Europe and America, he did not stick to the tradition, but tried to seek the innovation while inheriting the tradition so as to form his own unique aesthetic concept of novels, that is the art form and morality are equally important.Based on these, using Leavis's criticism and James's aesthetic concepts of novels, this paper will make an analysis of James's novels of different periods. James spent his whole life exploring how to show the moral standards through the beautiful form in his novels. Therefore, the status of morality and forms is always changing in his novels.Finally, this paper will re-position James and concludes that he is a traditional modernist.