A Small Boy and Others

by Henry James

"A Small Boy and Others" by Henry James is an autobiography published in 1913. The memoir chronicles James' earliest years, revealing a precocious yet reticent child who preferred observation to participation. He describes his intellectually vibrant family, encounters with literary giants like Thackeray and Dickens, and formative trips to Europe that awakened his artistic sensibility. Despite feelings of inadequacy compared to his brilliant brother William, the young James harbored ambitious dreams of artistic triumph that would eventually shape his destiny as a master of narrative fiction.