Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Art

Whatever question there may be of his [Thoreau's] talent, there can…

Quote byHenry James · 1843–1916

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Hawthorne (1879), Ch. IV: Brook Farm and Concord.

English (original)

Whatever question there may be of his [Thoreau's] talent, there can be none, I think, of his genius. It was a slim and crooked one; but it was eminently personal. He was imperfect, unfinished, inartistic; he was worse than provincial — he was parochial; it is only at his best that he is readable.

— Henry James

More from Henry James