Henry James (15 April 1843 - 28 February 1916) was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language.
He is best known for a number of novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between emigre Americans, English people, and continental Europeans –examples of such novels include The Portrait of a Lady , The Ambassadors , and The Wings of the Dove . His later works were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often made use of a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche.