FOR PROJECTS AIMED AT EDUCATED GROWN-UPS, IT'S JAMES' TURN.

Byline: Dinitia Smith The New York Times

Move over, Jane Austen: Here comes Henry James.

First there were all those film and television adaptations of Austen's novels: ``Pride and Prejudice,'' ``Sense and Sensibility,'' ``Persuasion'' and ``Emma'' (along with its updated sister, ``Clueless'').

Now it's James' turn. In the coming months, three major motion pictures will be released based on the work of that invincibly difficult master of the English language.

On Dec. 27, ``The Portrait of a Lady'' opens, starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Jane Campion, the director of ``The Piano.'' ``Portrait'' will be followed by ``Washington Square,'' with Jennifer Jason Leigh, and ``The Wings of the Dove,'' with Helena Bonham-Carter.

And there are other Henry James films in development. Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, who produced ``The Bostonians'' and ``The Europeans,'' say they are planning to complete their James trilogy with a third film, as yet unannounced. ``Masterpiece Theatre'' and PBS are planning a production of ``The Americans.''

And American audiences may yet have a chance to see Olivier Schatzky's French production of the James short story ``The Pupil,'' called ``Leleve,'' which brought him the best-director award at the Montreal Film Festival earlier this year.

Scholars are at work, too. The first volume of a major new biography, ``Henry James: the Young Master,'' by Sheldon M. Novick, is being published this month by Random House. The book is an autobiographical reading of James' work, and it suggests along the way that James had an affair with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

There is also Henry James on the Internet, including the entire text of his last complete - and most difficult - novel, ``The Golden Bowl.'' On the Henry James electronic bulletin board, some 250 scholars and aficionados eagerly exchange gossip and tidbits about the master.

The Henry James Review also is available on the Internet, with articles from recent issues including one, inspired by ``The Portrait of a Lady,'' that is titled ``Divorce of a Nation; or, Can Isabel Archer Resist History?''

The University of Nebraska Press is planning to publish all 12,000 of James' surviving letters, a project that is expected to fill 25 to 30 volumes and take 15 years to complete.

Why this surge of interest in the author who once referred to himself somewhat proudly as ``invincibly unsalable,'' and whose labyrinthine prose more often than not exhausts the average reader? (``We want it clear, goodness knows,'' James wrote. ``But we also want it thick.'')

James, whose attempts at writing for the stage were a dismal failure, would no doubt be amused to learn that so many of his works are being brought to the screen with big stars and big budgets. There have been Henry James movies, even operas based on his work, but the current spate of adaptations is a new phenomenon.

Certainly one reason for filmmakers' interest in Austen, James et al. is the dearth of movies for educated grown-ups. What the trade calls ``English garden party'' movies such as ``Sense and Sensibility'' have become popular with older moviegoers eager for sophisticated entertainment. And most Austen and James novels take place in grand settings, majestic gardens and country houses.

Last year's successful Broadway revival of the 1947 play ``The Heiress'' by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, based on James' ``Washington Square'' (as was William Wyler's 1949 film), has demonstrated that there is indeed an audience for James' work and has made it easier for filmmakers to get financing for such projects.

``Everybody's chasing young kids,'' said Campion. But she added that she had had no difficulty getting the $25 million she needed to make ``The Portrait of a Lady'' because ``people are becoming aware that there is a mature audience you can target separately.''

And for a mature audience hungry for more complex fare, James' novels tackle all the big issues. His works are essentially meditations on the grand themes of human existence, on love and desire, on family and fear and emotional abuse. They are dense, mysterious and nuanced.

``His works have a dark eroticism, which is quite suppressed,'' said Iain Softley, who directed the film adaptation of ``Wings of the Dove.''

For Campion, James' ``Portrait of a Lady,'' the tale of an heiress manipulated by her best friend into marriage with an artist, is ``quite racy.'' ``The accumulated effect of the story really sends shivers down my spine,'' she said. ``Isabel Archer becomes darker and darker and more doomed.''

In her film, Campion makes the relationship between Isabel and her husband, Osmond, played by John Malkovich, a virtual paradigm of spousal abuse.

``Playing the part was terrifying, yet also addictive,'' said Kidman, who makes her debut in a classical role as Isabel. ``We've all got friends, or we ourselves, have been in a relationship we can't leave.''