The Beast in the Jungle

by Henry James

Category: Fiction

Status: Available

Source: Public Domain — Project Gutenberg

About This Book

"The Beast in the Jungle" by Henry James is a novella published in 1903. It tells the story of John Marcher, a man obsessed with the belief that his life is destined for some catastrophic, spectacular event lurking in his future like a beast. His fixation prevents him from truly living or accepting the love of May Bartram, who patiently accompanies him through the years. This psychological parable explores loneliness, fate, and the tragic consequences of waiting for life instead of embracing it. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

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Transcribed from the 1915 Martin Secker edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE

CHAPTER I

What determined the speech that startled him in the course of their encounter scarcely matters, being probably but some words spoken by himself quite without intention--spoken as they lingered and slowly moved together after their renewal of acquaintance. He had been conveyed by friends an hour or two before to the house at which she was staying; the party of visitors at the other house, of whom he was one, and thanks to whom it was his theory, as always, that he was lost in the crowd, had been invited over to luncheon. There had been after luncheon much dispersal, all in the interest of the original motive, a view of Weatherend itself an

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About This Edition

This edition of The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James is catalogued on Libreya under Fiction and runs approximately 18,592 words — about 93 minutes of reading at an average pace. It is sourced from Project Gutenberg, the world's oldest digital library of public domain literature, founded in 1971 by Michael Hart, and every text on Libreya has been verified to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. You can view the original Project Gutenberg edition here.

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About Classic Fiction

Classic fiction represents the highest achievements of literary imagination. The novels in this genre have shaped how generations of readers understand human nature, society, and the fundamental questions of existence. Reading 19th and early 20th-century novels offers far more than historical interest: these stories explore love, ambition, morality, and identity with an insight that remains startlingly relevant today. Authors like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Austen, Hardy, and Dickens wrote for readers much like us — people trying to make sense of a complicated world — and their observations on class, relationships, power, and conscience carry across centuries with barely diminished force. Classic fiction is also where the novel as an art form reached some of its greatest heights: innovative narrative structures, deeply realized characters, and prose styles that reward slow, attentive reading. These are not museum pieces. They are living works that continue to be discussed, adapted, and argued over because they capture something essential and enduring about human experience.