Reading Groups

A Year of Henry James: Volume I with Sheridan Hay

Clear

4 Sessions Wednesdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT April 8 to April 29, 2026

Online via Zoom

The ‘With Books’ option includes a copy of Daisy Miller at a 10% discount from our Bookstore. A PDF of The Lesson of the Master will be emailed to all participants upon registration.

Meeting Dates:
4/8, 4/15, 4/22, 4/29
Online via Zoom

“Art makes life, makes interest, makes importance…”

We begin our year of Henry James with his first real critical and commercial success, the novella Daisy Miller, serialized in 1878 and published in book form in 1879. In Daisy Miller, James created his first great portrait of the enigmatic and dangerously independent American woman—a figure that comes to dominate his later masterpieces. He also introduced his International Theme: Americans abroad, innocence versus experience, and the often cruel grip of fate.

Written a year after Daisy Miller, James’s 1888 novella, The Lesson of the Master (1888), introduces another recurring element—the tension between the two lives an artist must live: a life of art and one of an individual in society. Whether centered on writers or, more often, painters, the artists in James’s stories express an autobiographical element: that of the artist who must devote himself to an unappreciated work while belonging to a society that neglects or resents it.

This is the first of three installments in a yearlong exploration of Henry James. We’ll trace the trajectory of his work, starting with his early short fiction, up through his late novel The Ambassadors (1903). Along the way, we’ll chart James’s recurring themes, as well as the development of the particular style and form that mark him as one of the greatest practitioners of the art of fiction in the English language. Each installment will cover a different set of texts; readers are welcome and encouraged to sign up for subsequent installments when they are announced.

Reading List:

Daisy Miller
The Lesson of the Master (a PDF will be emailed upon registration)

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read the first half of Daisy Miller (to the end of Chapter III) in advance of the first meeting.

What to expect from this reading group: Each 90-minute meeting will involve an opening set of remarks by Sheridan, followed by a facilitated discussion among the participants. Detailed notes will be emailed after each meeting.

Pricing inclusive of sales tax if applicable. Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Sheridan Hay

Sheridan Hay

Sheridan Hay is a writer, editor, and teacher. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her first novel, The Secret of Lost Things (Doubleday/Anchor), was a Booksense Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover selection, shortlisted for the Border’s Original Voices Fiction Prize, and nominated for the International Impact Award. A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and a New York Times Editor’s Choice, it was published in fourteen countries. Sheridan has led The Center for Fiction’s popular Moby-Dick reading group many times, as well as leading a long-standing Henry James group, among others. Early in her career, Sheridan was an editor at Simon & Schuster and worked at HarperCollins and Penguin Books in New York and in Sydney, Australia where she was born. She is a partner in the literary development and management collaboration, Filmore Projects (www.filmoreprojects.com).

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

Groups+Workshops

More Groups+Workshops

Groups+Workshops