The Jolly Corner by Henry James was first printed in The English Review, London, December 1908. Its first book version appeared in The Altar of the Dead, Volume XVII of the New York Edition of the complete works of Henry James, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1909.
In his story, James describes the mental ruminations of his protagonist Spencer Brydon, who, after many years of an expatriate and “selfishly frivolous and scandalous life” in England, has returned to New York to look after his now empty house on the Jolly Corner near Washington Square. On various occasions during his visit, Brydon sneaks into the house at night, roaming the dark corridors for hours, sometimes putting his candle down and seeing how far he can go without it in search of his “prey,” his ghostly alter ego that he believes is haunting the Jolly Corner.
In many interpretations, the ghost represents an un-lived life, chances missed, and family and friendships foregone. Some critics view The Jolly Corner as a tragedy of mythic proportions, a hero’s journey, in which a flawed man goes on a spiritual quest for redemption and forgiveness, hoping to abate his fears and fortify his ego, but most of all, to face himself possibly even as an “awful beast.”