Defining New York

This chapter examines the representation of New York in James’s writing in the period spanning from the mid-1860s to the late 1870s, during which time James established himself on the Anglo-American literary scene and carried out the experiment of living and working for a few months in New York. Through an analysis of some of James’s early short stories, such as “A Day of Days” and “A Passionate Pilgrim”, his debut novel Watch and Ward, the novella “An International Episode”, and his correspondence, this chapter shows how, early on in his career, James associated New York with combative masculinity, often contrasting it with female-coded locations, such as New England and Europe.