Henry James was an American author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism. Roderick Hudson, egotistical, beautiful and an exceptionally gifted sculptor. He is taken from New England to Rome by Rowland Mallet, a rich man of fine appreciative sensibilities, who intends to give Roderick the scope to develop his genius. Together they seem like twins or lovers, opposing halves of what should have been an ideal whole.