Life is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting, but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy. But the world as it stands is no narrow illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of the night; we wake up to it, forever and ever; and we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it.

As more material became available to scholars including the diaries of contemporaries and hundreds of affectionate and sometimes erotic letters written by James to younger men the picture of neurotic celibacy gave way to a portrait of a closeted homosexual although as author Terry Eagleton has stated ". Strether is to bring the young man back to the family business but he encounters unexpected complications. James was one of the great letter-writers of any era.

The concept of a good or bad novel is judged solely upon whether the author is good or bad. He is primarily known for the series of novels in which he portrays the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans.