simultaneous allure and danger of experience. The closer Clement gets to his goal of a home in the English countryside, the sicker he becomes. James' fiction would often show imaginative characters getting near the dense, "passionate" experience they desire, only to find that such experience can be destructive as well. Critical evaluation In his New York Edition preface James admitted the story's technical shortcomings. But the tale meant much to him as an early example of his international theme, the vivid contrast between Europe and America. Critics have generally agreed that the story makes the theme immediate and appealing, though there has been disagreement as to whether the tale is really all that much better than other early fiction James excluded from the New York Edition. Some critics have expressed impatience with Clement Searle as an impractical dreamer and a weak example of James' "poor sensitive gentlemen." Clement's physical illness makes him even less effective in the crude business of the world than some of James' other defeated protagonists. But his desire for a new and more emotionally fulfilling existence may gain him sympathy from readers who can identify with his dreams. Publication history "A Passionate Pilgrim" first appeared in two installments in The Atlantic Monthly of 1871 (27(161) (March 1871): 352–371; and 27(162) (April 1871):478–499. James revised the text for inclusion in A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales, his first short story collection and indeed his first published book. There it appears as the first of six stories (pages 7 to 124). A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales was published on 31 January 1875 under the imprint "Boston: James R. Osgood and Company", and sold for $2 each. The initial printing was of 1500 copies, but not all copies were bound immediately: about 400 copies that were bound in 1878 or later have the imprint of Houghton Osgood & Co. on their spine. There was no English edition, but copies of the American edition were imported, hand-stamped "London: Trübner & Co." or "London: Trübner & Co. 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill.", and sold for 10/6. James further revised the text of the story for a continental edition, published by Leipzig: Tauchnitz in 1884 together with "The Siege of London" and "The Point of View". It went through a fourth authorial revision before appearing in Stories Revived, a collection of east stories by James that had not yet appeared in