This study attempts to trace commitment to change in the most polular texts of Henry James. James believed that the novel should be ahead of its time and should influence experience as much as reflect or express it. In works like The Europeans, and Washington Square, James is seen to have brought American and European traditions in fiction in new ways. His later works show further experiments with the language of consciousness, peripheral and opposing points of view, elusive reality and communication by signs. Alan Bellringer is author of The Ambassadors and co-author of The Victorian Sages and The Romantic Age in Prose.