Offers a vision of Henry James as a social critic whose later works can be read as rich with homo-erotic suggestiveness. Drawing from work in queer and feminist theory, this book argues that the most fruitful approach to James is one that ignores the elitist portrait of the formalist master.

He shows how James confronts social changes in gender roles, sexual preferences, national affiliations, and racial and ethnic identifications in such important novels as "The American", "The Tragic Muse", "What Maisie Knew", and "In the Cage", and in such neglected short fiction as "The Last of the Valerii", "The Death of the Lion", and "The Middle Years". Positioning James' work within an interpretative context that pits the social and political anxieties of his day against the imperatives of an aesthetic ideology, "The Other Henry James" will engage scholars, students, and teachers of American literature and culture, gay literature, and queer theory.

Contents Preface Introduction: Henry James and Critical Theory Swept Away: Henry James, Margaret Fuller, and "The Last of the Valerii" A Phantom of the Opera: Christopher Newman's Unconscious in The American Acting Lessons: Racial, Sexual, and Aesthetic Politics in The Tragic Muse Textual Preference: James's Literary Defences against Sexuality in "The Middle Years" and "The Death of the Lion" The Portrait of a Small Boy as a Young Girl: Gender Trouble in What Maisie Knew Spectral Mechanics: Gender, Sexuality, and Work in In the Cage Conclusion: Henry James and the Art of Teaching Notes
Index