Critical Evaluation
Some of the judgments James made in these essays, especially his pronouncements on younger novelists in The New Novel, were harshly dismissed as limited and incorrect. Hugh Walpole, among others, thought James got his verdicts in the essay "all wrong." But as he almost always did throughout his career as a critic, James treated his fellow writers with respect and understanding, and tried to enter into their points of view.
James really did believe in his famous "house of fiction" image, where writers looked at life from different windows and thus returned interestingly varied reports. He liked to get at reports very dissimilar to his own, as the easiest way to gain an "extension of life."
Read more about this topic: Notes On Novelists
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