Table Of ContentCopyright by
Isadore Traschen
1952
HENRY JAMES: THE ART OF REVI8IOH
A Comparison of the Original and Revised Versions
of The American
Isadore Trasohen
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Faoulty of Philoso
phy, Columbia University.
PREFACE
Working so olosely with a novel by Henry Jane* baa bean a
singular experience for me. By turna exhilarating and exasperating,
thla study of the revisions of The American has never failed to
exert a kind of fascination. The "prodigious" pile of pages -
stripped from their binding - that haunted my dreams and acts are
looked airay in a dark corner, and they are very still now. But
while they ruled my life, waiting for me every morning on my desk,
1 had the sense of reliving, in a very small way, to be sure, James's
own experience. Just as he must have deliberated over an alteration,
so I did. And just as he was undoubtedly both exalted and depressed^
so I marveled and was weary. In a sense, I was in his study, invis
ible, by the side of his great bulk, watching him brood over the old
and the new. Altogether, one gets little oloser than this to the
literary oraft and the craftsman.
The American first appeared serially in the Atlantlo Monthly
from June 1876 to May 1877. In the summer of the latter year it
was published in book form by James R. Osgood and Company. (Accord
ing to Leon Edel, who is working on what will probably be the defini
tive biography of James, the manusoript of The American is not known
to be extant.) I have compared the first edition with the magaslne
version of the novel and I have found them to be alike except for
punctuation and a single word on every few pages. These ohanges
cannot be considered to be James's - it is known that magaslne edi
tors took great liberties in those days. Besides, the book was
published almost immediately after the last installment, so that
James would hare had little time to make any changes* In any case,
the few alterations do not oarry any significance for this study*
Beoause of its availability, 1 have seleoted ths publication
of the Rinehart editions series, which has an introduction by
Joseph Warren Beach, as the text for the original version. This
text was ooapared with the flret edition of The Arnerloan in the
Berg Collection of The New York Public Library, and it is faith
ful to that edition* The New York Edition, published by Charles
Sorlbner's Sons, is the text used for the revised version* There
were no intermediate revisions of The American* as there were in
the :oase of Roderlok Hudson.
I am indebted to all students of James, but particularly to
the late Professor F*0* lfatthlessen, whose fine study of The Por
trait of a Lady stimulated my Interest in James's revisions* I
am under obligation to Professor Paul S. Wood for his careful
reading of the manusoript, and for his many Invaluable suggestions*
Professor Frederick W* Dupee made me aware of some of the broader
implications of this study; I am also grateful to him for several
talks on the question of my own style* 1 have found Professor
John A* Kouwenhoven's recommendations to be useful, and his emphasis
on problems of organization was a helpful reminder* I want to take
this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to Lucille Calender,
who neglected husband and child to assist in proofreading this
paper* Jack Davis, to whom I am indebted for so much, first
suggested the subject of James's revisions to me, and I hare slnoe
drawn on his endurance and intelligence* But without Doris, ay
wife, who has somehow survived, this study would probably not have
been done. Her patient assistance, her unfailing spirit, and her
devotion were my Indispensable supports.
I wish to make the following acknowledgements for permission
to use quoted material: Houghton Mifflin Company and Charles Scrib
ner's Sons, for quotations from the New York Edition of The Amerloan,
and Paul R. Reynolds and Son, for quotations from The Complete Plays
of Henrv James.
CONTENTS
Pxefaoe li
I The Religion of Doing 1
II The Revisions: The Action of the Stoxy 13
III The Revisions: The Ohaxaoters 106
Ohxistopher Newman 108
Claire de CintxA 123
Valentin de Bellegaxde 143
lladame de Bellegaxde 163
Uxbain de Bellegaxde 183
Notmie Nloohe 187
U. Nioche 194
Marquise de Bellegaxde 197
Mrs. Bxead 300
Mrs. Tristram 305
Tom Tristxam 313
IV James's Pxayer 315
Appendix "A”: A Oompaxative Illustration of
James's Style 337
Appendix "B": Other Studies of the Revisions 353
Appendix ”CN: A Comparison of the Revision with
the Play 364
Bibliography 369
In llemory of my Mother
HENRY JAKES: THE ART 07 REVISION
CHAPTER I
The Religion of Doing
And the original preparation of that collec-
tlve and selective series Involved really the
extrcCKlty of labour - all my "earlier"
things - of which the Bostonians would have
been, If Included, one - were so Intimately
and Interestingly revised. The edition Is
from that point of view really a monument
(like Ozymandlas) which never had the least
intelligent critical Justice done It —- or
any sort of critical attention at all paid
it . . . .1
If Henry James were alive today, he would have had
to search history for another ruler, one with a happier
story to tell than poor Ozymandlas. For since James's
death, and particularly during the last two decades,
his work has received more "orltlcal attention," and,
It Is hoped, more "Intelligent critical justloe" than
ever In his lifetime.2
The figure of the monument - James thought In
figures as other men do in words - suggests the measure
*The letters of Henry James, ed. Percy Lubbock (New
York, 1920) - hereafter cited as Letters - II, £97,
"When James visited the United States In 1905, Sorlb-
ners proposed the New York Edition to hi$. The actual
work on this seleoted twenty-four volume Edition - It
1
of greatness he believed was due to the New York
Edition as a whole. It is the considered conclusion
of this stpdy that the figure may be applied, with
some reservations, to that part of the monumental whole
with which we are concerned, the so intimate and in
teresting revisions. For we must rid ourselves at
once of the notion that the revisions are simply a
mass of more or less suggestive but essentially
dlsorete, and frequently piddling touches to old tales.
To be sure, many of the smaller changes are, in the
narrow sense, merely stylistic. Nevertheless, as this
investigation will attempt to show in the case of The
American, the bulk of the revisions is Informed by
a single and continuous act of James's imagination.
What is so remarkable about this, after allf
The revisions, we should recall, were begun in 1906,
two years after James had finished the last of his
was increased to twenty-six in 1917 - began in 1906
and lasted for two years. James contracted to write
eighteen prefaces whloh he described as a "sort of
plea for Criticism, for Discrimination, for Apprecia
tion • • • . a sort of comprehensive manual or vade-
mecum for aspirants in our arduous profession. * ,
tl, 99. Though his critical theory ungenerously re
fuses to embrace, for instance, the works of some of
the great Russian novelists, the prefaoes are ack
nowledged masterpieces.
