Jamesian

American  

[jeym-zee-uhn] / ˈdʒeɪm zi ən /

Or Jamesean

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the novelist Henry James or his writings.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of William James or his philosophy.

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noun

1. a student or follower of Henry James or William James.

Jamesian British  

/ ˈdʒeɪmzɪən /

adjective

1. relating to or characteristic of Henry James or his brother, William James

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Etymology

Origin of Jamesian

First recorded in 1870–75; James + -ian

Example Sentences

It’s a flawed book in some ways, but it’s also a social novel that captures a very romanticized period, almost in a Henry Jamesian way, in Greenwich Village.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2022

His essays and other works of fiction are similarly rooted in the lives of gay men, but his Jamesian powers of observation haven’t translated into major prizes or name recognition.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 7, 2022

But with her Jamesian attention to the slightest movement of bodies and words, Kitamura keeps “Intimacies” rooted to the ordinary domestic experiences of her narrator, her petty jealousies, her passing suspicions.

From Washington Post • Jul. 13, 2021

It also, as a result, opened up Europe for the first time to Americans beyond the ranks of Jamesian travellers and Hemingwayesque expatriates.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 6, 2019

No crude explanation of the decisions he made can do justice to the multiple loyalties he felt, or the almost Jamesian way he thought about and ultimately resolved them.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis