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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of Jamesian

First recorded in 1870–75; James + -ian

Example Sentences

Osgood’s Colonial-era English is elegantly braided with his crazed enthusiasm for apples, while the sisters’ story is thick with Jamesian dread.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 19, 2023

Rosemary Pardoe, founder of the journal Ghosts and Scholars, once compiled a list of various stories composed in the Jamesian manner.

From Washington Post • Jan. 27, 2023

David Lodge published Author, Author, a novel about Henry James, in the same year that three other Jamesian books came out, including one by Colm Tóibín that got more attention and praise.

From The Guardian • Mar. 11, 2019

Only Madame Merle is a Jamesian creation beyond Eliot’s ken.

From New York Times • Dec. 8, 2017

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