Henry James acquaints his readers to his bi-national world of love and nostalgia in An International Episode. The book's principal concern, as in most of his novels, is the cultural distinctions and interactions between the New and Old Worlds. Two British gentlemen travel to the United States and meet two stunning American women, who later return the favour in London. Aside from the romantic aspect of the story, the narrative centers around cultural and social misunderstandings, faux pas, and false friends, making the work resemble a comedy of manners. In this book, James is clearly seen highlighting the contrast between the hospitality of Americans towards Europeans and the unfriendly nature with which upper class English men treat Americans. The inclusion of characters such as Willy Woodley, Mr. Westgate, and even Captain Littledale, who are introduced into the narrative as people of significance - only to vanish, having made very little contribution to the story, exemplifies the constructional uncertainties. They act as cyphers whose sole purpose is to transport the story from one point to another. Thus, the story does not hold as cohesively and does not have much sense of thematic density.
Henry James OM was an American-born British author born in New York City on 15 April 1843. He is recognized as a crucial figure in the transition from literary realism to literary modernism. Henry James, Sr., an investor, and banker in Albany, was his father. Henry James was medically unfit in 1861 to fight in the American Civil War. For The Nation and Atlantic Monthly, he produced both fiction and nonfiction writing. Later, in 1878, Watch and Ward was published as a book. He left for Paris in 1875 and arrived in London in 1876. The Portrait of a Lady (1878), was released in 1881. He relocated to Sussex in 1897-1898, where he wrote The Turn of the Screw. He wrote The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl between 1902 and 1904. He received the Order of Merit in 1915 and became a citizen of Great Britain. His memoirs A Small Boy and Others and Notes of a Son and Brother were both published in 1913. He received the Order of Merit in 1915 and became a citizen of Great Britain. He was cremated after passing away on February 28, 1916, in Chelsea, London.
