Download or read book Culture and Conduct in the Novels of Henry James written by Alwyn Berland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1981-04-02 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing Henry James' conception of civilization as culture and the relationship of this conception to his major works, Berland argues that James brought to his fiction the moral commitment that characterized a Puritan New England and a dedication to the aesthetic culture he found in England and in Europe. He concludes that these commitments provide James with his major themes, characters and fictional techniques and the two immutable Jamesian laws : Europe is better than America, but Americans are better than Europeans.