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Henry James was born at 21 Washington Place in New York on 15 April 1843, left Harvard Law School, and in the autumn of 1875 moved to Paris; a year later he settled in London. On 5 January 1895 his play Guy Domville opened in London to hissing from the gallery. Around the time of What Maisie Knew (1897) he began dictating his fiction to a typist, and his style changed. In 1915 he became a British citizen; he received the Order of Merit and died in Chelsea on 28 February 1916, having been nominated three times for the Nobel Prize. The ten writers below share his ground: Americans and Europeans misreading each other, money and marriage, and what people know but will not say.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Literary fiction · Americans abroad · Psychological novel · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Henry James, start with Edith Wharton, his friend, whose The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920) dissect old New York, Colm Tóibín, whose The Master (2004) imagines James’s own inner life, and Alan Hollinghurst, whose Booker-winning The Line of Beauty (2004) follows a young man writing a doctorate on James. Further down are the Russian novelist James wrote five essays about, and the friend who mocked his late style in print.
10 authors like Henry James
Where to start if you loved Henry James
If you are new to this kind of novel, start with Edith Wharton.
The House of Mirth: old New York, money and a woman who cannot afford to marry for love.
If you loved The Portrait of a Lady, read George Eliot.
Middlemarch: an idealistic young woman and the marriage she gets wrong.
If you want the man behind the novels, read Colm Tóibín.
The Master: a novel of James’s own inner life.
If you want the case against James, read H. G. Wells.
Kipps: the kind of socially engaged novel Wells preferred, and James distrusted.
If you want more Henry James, read him in this order.
Daisy Miller (1878), Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Turn of the Screw (1898) and The Ambassadors (1903).
Frequently asked questions about authors like Henry James
Who writes like Henry James?
Edith Wharton, Colm Tóibín and Alan Hollinghurst are the closest matches. Wharton was his friend and wrote about the same society, Tóibín made James the hero of The Master, and Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty follows a young man writing a doctorate on James.
Which Henry James book should I read first?
Washington Square (1880) or Daisy Miller (1878), both short. Then The Portrait of a Lady (1881), before late novels such as The Ambassadors (1903).
What should I read after The Portrait of a Lady?
George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1871–72), Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905) and Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn (2009), three novels about young women making choices that shape their lives.
Is Henry James like Edith Wharton?
Yes, in subject: both write about American society, money and marriage, often with Europe in the background. Wharton is more direct; James is more indirect, especially in his late novels. They were close friends.
Was Henry James American or British?
Both. He was born in New York in 1843, settled in Europe from 1875 and became a British citizen in 1915, the year before he died in London.
Is Kazuo Ishiguro like Henry James?
His novels are often compared to James’s, especially The Remains of the Day with its evasive narrator, but Ishiguro himself rejects the comparison.
Sources
- Henry James — Wikipedia
- Boon (novel) — Wikipedia
- The Line of Beauty — Wikipedia
- The Ambassadors by Henry James — Project Gutenberg
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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“Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to.”
— Henry James, The Ambassadors.
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