Roderick Hudson
by Henry James
First novel by Henry James, serialized in The Atlantic Monthly in 1875 and published in book form in 1876. It was revised by the author in 1879 for publication in England. Roderick Hudson is the story of the conflict between art and the passions; the title character is an American sculptor in Italy. Faltering in both his artistic ambitions and his personal relationships, he travels to Switzerland and dies there. “The brilliant Roman winter came round again, and Rowland enjoyed it, in a certain way, more deeply than before. He grew at last to feel that sense of equal possession, of intellectual nearness, which it belongs to the peculiar magic of the ancient city to infuse into minds of a cast that she never would have produced. He became passionately, unreasoningly fond of all Roman sights and sensations.”