In the 1890s, when Henry James tried to achieve fame and financial security by turning to the theater, he was unceremoniously booed off the stage. Since the 1940s and "50s his fiction has nevertheless been consistently interpreted by composers and film directors, culminating in the recent film adaptations of his novels by Merchant-Ivory, Jane Campion, and Iain Softley. Henry James on Stage and Screen traces this historical development.