Henry James: Within the Rim
Within the Rim is a collection of essays by Virginia Woolf, published in 1922. The essays explore the themes of identity, memory, and the power of the imagination. Woolf examines the idea of the self, and how it is shaped by the world around us. She looks at the ways in which our memories and experiences shape our understanding of the world, and how our imagination can be used to create new realities. Woolf also examines the power of language, and how it can be used to express our innermost thoughts and feelings. Throughout the essays, Woolf reflects on the power of literature, and how it can be used to explore the depths of the human experience.
By Virginia Woolf · First published 1919 · Genre: Biography, Literary Criticism, Literary Fiction · 1,216 words
First lines
It would be easy to justify the suspicion which the sight of WITHIN THE RIM aroused, and to make it account for the tepid and formal respect with which we own to have approached the book. Essays about the war contributed to albums and books with a charitable object even by the most distinguished of writers bear for the most part such traces of perfunctory composition, such evidence of genius forcibly harnessed to the wagon of philanthropy and sullen and stubborn beneath the lash, that one is inclined for the sake of the writer to leave them unread. But we should not have said this unless we intended immediately and completely to unsay it. The process of reading these essays was a process of recantation. It is possible that the composition of some of them was an act of duty, in the sense that the writing of a chapter of a novel was not an act of duty. But the duty was imposed upon Henry James not by the persuasions of a committee nor by the solicitations of friends, but by a power much more commanding and irresistible--a power so large and of such immense significance to him that he scarcely succeeds with all his range of expression in saying what it was or all that it meant to him. It was Belgium, it was France, it was above all England and the English tradition, it was everything that he had ever cared for of civilization, beauty and art threatened with destruction and arrayed before his imagination in one figure of tragic appeal.
What this Textopian page supports
Henry James: Within the Rim is listed on Textopian as a short story by Virginia Woolf, dated 1919 CE.
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- Work type: Short story
- Author: Virginia Woolf
- Date: 1919 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Biography, Literary Criticism, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
- Length: 1,216 words
- Structure: 1 section, 38 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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Genres
- Biography — The book is a biography of Henry James, written by Virginia Woolf.
- Literary Criticism — The book is a critical analysis of the works of Henry James, written by Virginia Woolf.
- Literary Fiction — The book is written in a literary style, and contains elements of fiction.
- Historical Fiction — The book is set in the historical context of Henry James' life and works.
Tags
august · beauty · book · books · civilization · composition · duty · earth · elderly · emotions · england · essay