Terminations
Terminations: The Death of the Lion, The Coxon Fund, The Middle Years, The Altar of the Dead
Henry James
Series: Pine Street Books
Copyright Date: 2004
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press,
Pages: 248
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zw7dn
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Book Info
Terminations
Book Description:

Terminationsis Henry James's most thematically unified collection of stories. Gathered in 1895, and following his fascination with the supernatural in the 1880s, this elegant collection explores the sadness of loss, both physical and spiritual, and finds James at his introspective best, while providing a glimpse of how the author dealt with death in his own life.

The collection consists of four stories: "The Death of the Lion," in which the narrator prepares to write an obituary for a great editor he admired; "The Coxon Fund," where an endowment from a will comes unexpectedly to a seemingly undeserving character; "The Middle Years," a brief glimpse at the public reception of a novel and the private sacrifice it exacted from its author; and "The Altar of the Dead," a moving meditation on finding meaning in life that James wrote in response to the death of a close lady friend.

Terminationsreveals a writer preoccupied with the endings of life, expressing his thoughts in prose that is as finely balanced as the most famous of James's work.

eISBN: 978-0-8122-9119-3
Subjects: Language & Literature
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. [i]-[iv])
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. [v]-[vi])
  3. THE DEATH OF THE LION
    THE DEATH OF THE LION (pp. 1-58)

    I had simply, I suppose, a change of heart, and it must have begun when I received my manuscript back from Mr. Pinhorn. Mr. Pinhorn was my “chief,” as he was called in the office; he had accepted the high mission of bringing the paper up. This was a weekly periodical, and had been supposed to be almost past redemption when he took hold of it. It was Mr. Deedy who had let it down so dreadfully; he was never mentioned in the office now save in connection with that misdemeanor. Young as I was I had been in a...

  4. THE COXON FUND
    THE COXON FUND (pp. 59-150)

    “They’ve got him for life!” I said to myself that evening on my way back to the station; but later, alone in the compartment (from Wimbledon to Waterloo, before the glory of the District Railway), I amended this declaration in the light of the sense that my friends would probably after all not enjoy a monopoly of Mr. Saltram. I won’t pretend to have taken his vast measure on that first occasion, but I think I had achieved a glimpse of what the privilege of his acquaintance might mean for many persons in the way of charges accepted. He had...

  5. THE MIDDLE YEARS
    THE MIDDLE YEARS (pp. 151-184)

    The April day was soft and bright, and poor Dencombe, happy in the conceit of reasserted strength, stood in the garden of the hotel, comparing, with a deliberation in which, however, there was still something of languor, the attractions of easy strolls. He liked the feeling of the south, so far as you could have it in the north, he liked the sandy cliffs and the clustered pines, he liked even the colorless sea. “Bournemouth as a health-resort” had sounded like a mere advertisement, but now he was reconciled to the prosaic. The sociable country postman, passing through the garden,...

  6. THE ALTAR OF THE DEAD
    THE ALTAR OF THE DEAD (pp. 185-244)

    He had a mortal dislike, poor Stransom, to lean anniversaries, and he disliked them still more when they made a pretence of a figure. Celebrations and suppressions were equally painful to him, and there was only one of the former that found a place in his life. Again and again he had kept in his own fashion the day of the year on which Mary Antrim died. It would be more to the point perhaps to say that the day kepthim:it kept him at least, effectually, from doing any thing else. It took hold of him year after...