“[An] amalgam of brilliant critical analysis and desperate …

“[An] amalgam of brilliant critical analysis and desperate personal pleading . . . The publication of Mariners, Renegades and Castaways by the University Press of New England this summer – the first time the book has been printed in complete form in nearly 50 years – is simply the latest evidence of a major James revival now under way . . . [James’s] posthumous popularity makes sense. Just as he argued that Melville’s novel ‘is alive today as never before since it was written, ‘ James’s work from more than 50 years ago neatly prefigured an impressive number of contemporary academic trends.”