James, Henry

Very Grand American Novelist. FH was not a fan: James "confirmed my somewhat contemptuous opinion of his intelligence by praising my predecessor on the Fortnightly Review [John Morley] excessively". James also rated Leslie Stephen highly. FH, in contrast, considered Morley and Stephens as "academic mediocrities", "mere hodmen, incapable of conception".

FH also tells of reading "a thin book of James's" (evidently The Turn of the Screw), which he calls "worse than worthless". After that he "never read another word of Henry James".