In The Cage

by Henry James

Overview

Henry James' story ''In the Cage'' was initially made available as a book in 1898. The protagonist of this lengthy tale is an anonymous London telegraphist. As she waits in the "cage" at the post office, she deciphers hints about the private lives of her clients from the frequently cryptic telegrams they send her. The telegraphist, who is perceptive and knowledgeable, eventually learns more information than she may have wanted to. An unnamed telegraphist works in a post office in a fashionable London neighborhood. She becomes "engaged" with Captain Everard and Lady Bradeen, a couple of lovers. By remembering certain code numbers in the telegrams, she manages to reassure them that their secrets are safe. The protagonist of in the Cage can be seen as a version of the artist, constructing a complex finished work from the slightest hints. Her knack for deducing details of her customers' lives from their brief, cryptic telegrams is similar in some ways to James' ability to invent stories from the tiniest suggestions. Her function was to dole out stamps and postal orders, weigh letters, answer stupid questions and give difficult change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789357271295
Publisher:	Double 9 Books
Publication date:	04/22/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	511 KB

About the Author

Henry James, an American-British author, was born on April 15, 1843, and died on February 28, 1916. He is well-known as a key transitional personality between literary realism and modernism. His novels dealt with the social and marital interplay between Americans, English people, and continental Europeans. Author Henry James was nominated for the Nobel Prize for English Literature. His novel, "The Turn of the Screw," is regarded as one of the most analyzed and ambiguous ghost stories in the English language. The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904) were James's three most significant novels. Henry James was the author of 20 novels, 112 tales, 12 plays, several volumes of travel and criticism, and a great deal of literary journalism. A master of prose fiction from the beginning, he practiced it as a fertile innovator, enlarged the form, and placed upon it his own stamp. The Ambassadors is the first in a series of three novels by Henry James, published between 1901 and 1914, dealing with the subject of an heiress doomed to die by illness. This novel avoids its cliché subject by focusing on the characters surrounding the unfortunate young woman.

Date of Birth:

April 15, 1843

Date of Death:

February 28, 1916

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Attended school in France and Switzerland; Harvard Law School, 1862-63

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	In the Cage	1
	Biographical note	113