Description: Examines Henry James's career-spanning interest in what it means to "live," placing him in dialogue with the cutting-edge practical philosophies of Martin Hägglund, Rahel Jaeggi, and J.M. Bernstein.
Brief description: Patrick Jonesis Teaching and Research Fellow in Modern English Literature at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His writing on Henry James and philosophy have been published in The Henry James Review and the Cambridge Quarterly.
Review Quotes:
"Patrick Jones has written a very impressive, thoughtful and ground-breaking work on one of the most complicated and important issues in the work of Henry James - the concept of 'life' or 'living all you can' as an ideal at issue in many novels and stories. I know of no more sophisticated philosophical or critical treatment of James, nor one more sensitive to his style and thought." --Robert Pippin, Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, USA
"'Live!' The exhortation, or thought, recurs throughout the writing of Henry James, connecting his fiction to fundamental philosophical as well as ordinary human questions. Can one consciously seek to live more fully? What would it mean to do so? Patrick Jones's beautifully lucid and deeply searching book revivifies both James's great late works and the subject of literature's relevance to phenomenological inquiry." --Jennifer Fleissner, Professor of English Literature, University of Chicago, USA