Professions of Taste: Henry James, British Aestheticism, and Commodity Culture - Paperback

by Jonathan Freedman (Author)

The author traces Henry James's career-long encounter with the tradition of British aestheticism and places both in the context of the late nineteenth century's professionalization and commodification of literary life.

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Our understanding of the way Pre-Raphaelite concerns fertilized the aestheticist breeding grounds of Anglo-American modernism takes a leap forward with Freedman's Professions of Taste, an ambitiously theorized, handsomely written, and enlightening book.--Studies in English Literature
"Professions of Taste is a work that Henry James might have read with pleasure. It is beautifully written, crafted in the highest spirit of critical enterprise."--American Literature