Chapter Eleven: Paris Again Summary and Analysis

Henry James, Jr., had first been to Paris as a young boy while vacationing in Europe with his family. Returning as an adult in 1875, he marveled at the resurgence of France and its "amazing elasticity." (p. 331) He recalled the happy hours he spent in the Louvre as a boy. In his Atlantic crossing in the mid 1870s at thirty-two years of age, he had no idea that he was in Europe to stay. Although he missed his family and wrote often, he was dedicated to his work. Paris was an excellent place to work and he assured his editor at the Atlantic, William Dean Howells, who would be publishing his work that he would be productive.

Since the conflicts of the early 1870s, the number of Americans visiting Paris was on the increase. They were...