It is Christmas 1912, and Charlotte McEwan is 15 years old. The coal-mining town of Extension, British Columbia, on Vancouver island has hit hard times. When the opportunity to work in a local dynamite factory presents itself, Charlotte braves the disapproval of her mother for the chance to bring in some extra cash and keep the vow she made to herself to get her family as far away from the mine as possible. But the job is more dangerous than she bargained for, and soon Charlotte is at risk in more ways than one.

What is the relation between the novel and ethical thought? Henry James and the Promise of Fiction argues that the answer to this question lies not in the content of a work of fiction but in its form. Stuart Burrows explores the relationship between James's ethical vision and his densely metaphorical style, his experiments with narrative time, and his radical reimagining of perspective. Each chapter takes as its starting point a different aspect of an issue at the heart of moral philosophy: the act of promising. Engaging with a range of moral philosophers and literary theorists, most notably David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida, Henry James and the Promise of Fiction argues that James's formal experimentation represents a significant contribution to ethical thought in its own right.

Vols. 8-10 of the 1965-1984 master cumulation constitute a title index.