The Art of the NovelThis collection of prefaces, originally written for the 1909 multi volume New York Edition of Henry Jamess fiction, first appeared in book form in 1934 with an introduction by poet and critic R. P. Blackmur. In his prefaces, James tackles the great problems of fiction writingcharacter, plot, point of view, inspirationand explains how he came to write novels such as The Portrait of a Lady and The American. As Blackmur puts it, criticism has never been