Henry James and the Real Thing: A Modern Reader's Guide

260 Pages·1994·15.417 MB·English

by  Virginia Llewellyn Smith

HENRY JAMES AND THE REAL THING
A MODERN READER'S GUIDE
Also by Virginia Llewellyn Smith
ANTON CHEKHOV AND THE LADY WITH THE DOG
Henry James and the
Real Thing
A Modern Reader's Guide
Virginia Llewellyn Smith
M
MACMILLAN
© Virginia Llewellyn Smith 1994
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
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First published 1994 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 0-333-61139-X hardcover
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Printed in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
For Chris, Julia and Cas

Contents
Preface ix
References and Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Washington Square 13
2 The Portrait of a Lady 31
3 The Princess Casamassima 75
4 The Spoils of Poynton 107
5 What Maisie Knew 140
6 T/ze Wmgs o/ the Dove 176
Epilogue 219
Notes 228
Further Reading 242
Ittdex 244
vn
'But how does he know?'
'Know it's the real thing? Oh, I'm sure
when you see it you do know. Vera incessu patuit deaY
The Figure in the Carpet'
Preface
Does the reader James wrote for still exist? Has an unbridgeable gap
opened up between the academic interest he continues to excite and
the popular success he always wanted? Are we losing, under the
sheer weight of his reputation and of critical comment, the sense of
what we read him for - the wit, the excitement, the moments of
truth?
This book is written in the belief that James's genius easily sur
mounts these considerations, but that there are people who remain
unconvinced of this - and that not all of them will read this book. It
is written, therefore, for friends who share my enthusiasm for
James, without having had my opportunity to indulge it; but it is
also intended to be useful to those of their pupils who may feel they
haven't the time or the background knowledge to tackle more speci
alised or theoretical critical texts. And it is aimed, ultimately, at
those persons under no obligation to read novels, let alone criticism,
who have tactfully said to me that they might become James enthu
siasts if they had some idea where to start. If they find this book to
have been worth reading in that respect, I shall feel it was well
worth writing it.
I have tried in it to strike a balance between two broad views of
James: (1) that his work is about (alternatively, not enough about)
real human dilemmas; and (2) that it is 'about' fictional processes.
These views might be categorised as 'ancient' and 'modern'; but
that 'modern' in my subtitle is there as an acknowledgement that
critical fashions change, not an assertion that the newest model is
necessarily the best. It has the function also of distinguishing my
book from, and of conscious reference to, the work of S. Gorley Putt,
who in calling his 1966 survey of James 'a reader's guide' has
already made by implication two important points.
First, that our prime concern with James must be as readers not
critics, and not with what he was, but with what he wrote; not to
establish his place in the literary canon (or to demote him from it),
but to find in him whatever pleasure and interest we can. For that is
what's assumed under the term 'guide' (and this is the second
point): that we are where we are because we want to be, and being
there, intend to make the most of it.
IX