“It is because these characters depend to such a high degree on their own sense of integrity that for them, victory has nothing to do with happiness. It has more to do with a settling within oneself, a movement inward that makes them whole. Their reward is not happiness — a word that is central in Austen's novels but is seldom used in James's universe. What James's characters gain is self-respect.”

On Henry James and his novels
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)

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Azar Nafisi 28
Iranaian academic and writer 1955

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