Reviews

The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James

nyctophilickiwi's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

saeruh's review against another edition

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1.0

(Read for my intro to lit class)
didn’t like it ❤️ everyone was so stupid and the scenes melted into one another with no clear distinctions of when they stopped or started

araichmente's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

shellmarienelms's review against another edition

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This story makes me want to shed a tear for Henry James

chadimus's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

bookiss's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

shoba's review against another edition

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4.0

“Everything fell together, confessed, explained, overwhelmed; leaving him most of all stupefied at the blindness he had cherished. The fate he had been marked for he had met with a vengeance he had emptied the cup to the lees; he had been the man of his time, the man, to whom nothing on earth was to have happened. That was the rare stroke that was his visitation. So he saw it, as we say, in pale horror, while the pieces fitted and fitted. So she had seen it while he didn't, and so she served at this hour to drive the truth home. It was the truth, vivid and monstrous, that all the while he had waited the wait was itself his portion.”

I am not a fan of Henry James’ work but this novella proved to be the exception. I read it because it was referred to in first few pages of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

“…he had read Henry James' short story ‘The Beast in the Jungle.’ Oppenheimer was utterly transfixed by this tale of obsession and tormented egotism in which the protagonist is haunted by a premonition that he was ‘being kept for something rare and strange, possibly prodigious and terrible, that was sooner or later to happen.’”

adelineee_graceee's review against another edition

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4.0

the man can write 

barbiereads's review against another edition

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reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

bethmarie2003's review against another edition

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slow-paced

1.5

good plot, but ruined by lifeless writing, confusing run-on sentences,  and agonizingly slow pacing