This thesis examines the influence of Latin literature and values on the fiction of Henry James, with particular reference to the authors who wrote under Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. The similarities between their works and his are analysed in terms of structure, style, setting, plot, theme, imagery, characterisation and didacticism by close readings and comparisons of the texts. The writings to be compared are Horace's Odes with James's “Daisy Miller,” Virgil's Aeneid with The Ambassadors, and the histories of Livy and Tacitus with The Golden Bowl. In the end, this dissertation attempts to demonstrate how the morals that James sought to commend to his young and burgeoning America were based on those of the ancient Augustan age, a period that he may have believed bore a strong resemblance to his own times, while he may also have felt that emulation and appropriation of these canonical classical writers could help him to become a classic himself. The results of this enquiry are offered as a contribution to both classical reception studies and Jamesian studies.

No description available.