What is the author's style in Tales of Henry James: The Texts of the Stories, the Author on His Craft, Background and Criticism by Henry James?

In many ways point of view is the story, in Henry James' work. His stories are really more about internal dialogue and perceptions of reality, rather than actions or events. He often filters the story through a narrator, giving the reader access only to the thoughts and perceptions of that character, not the actual facts of the situation. This is an early example of an unreliable narrator — a point-of-view character who may not see the truth, or the whole truth. In Daisy Miller: A Study, the young, timid, unnamed narrator reports the habits and personality of the fresh-faced, forthright young American Daisy Miller. Because the reader sees Daisy only through this filter, it is much harder to form an impression of her and impossible to know if that impression is correct. That story even has a second point of view, a first-person "I" character who appears only twice in the text, inconspicuously. James' narrator frequently have no names, as the young publisher in the Aspern Papers and the telegraphist in In The Cage.

James' default narrator is a sensitive, timid, artistic, unmarried young man perhaps best illustrated by the publisher in The Aspern Papers. These characters are frequently surrounded by powerful, flamboyant, fascinating, interesting women whom James largely ignores. These include The Countess in The Middle Years, Miss Juliana and Miss Tita in the Aspern Papers, and Mrs. Moreen in The Pupil. Any one of these compelling females would make a more powerful, traditionally interesting story than James' mousy little artistic men. Yet, the crux of the stories lies in these men's perceptions of the world around them and their actions — or inaction — in response.