The Jolly Corner

The English Review first published "The Jolly Corner," a short story by Henry James, in December 1908. One of Henry James' most well-known ghost tales, "The Jolly Corner," tells the adventures of Spencer Brydon as he prowls the now-vacant New York house where he was raised. He has a "feeling more intricate than had ever found itself consistent with rationality." After living overseas for 35 years, Spencer Brydon returns to New York. He discovers that he is skilled at managing a refurbishment of his childhood home. He starts to ponder what kind of person he might have been if he had led a more relaxed life in the United States. The Jolly Corner was first published by The English Review in 1908. Henry James describes Spencer Brydon's tour of his now-vacant childhood home in New York. He encounters a "feeling more sophisticated than had ever found itself consistent with sanity." He referred to his childhood home as "The Jolly Corner." Brydon begins to believe that he alters ego, the ghost of the man he might have once been, is haunting the estate. The theme of unlived lives permeates the entire narrative.