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H. James
H. James
with the international theme, i.e. the heroes are either American or English
and they spend some time abroad, discovering their personality and becoming
stronger characters.
The Wings of the Dove (1902)
The Ambassadors (1903) - his most complex novel, conflict between
innocence and experience
The Golden Bowl (1904) discovers the perversity of the old continent
Henry James is considered as radical by a part of literary criticism. This could
be due to his interest in modifying some essential elements of the literary text:
he attaches an unprecedented importance to impurity (seen as a lack of logic
and coherence), a fact which completely shocked the audience
he accompanies this by irony and detachment
H. James doubles this lack of purity of the plot by a lack of purity of the style.
As a result, he will be accused of obscurity, but, at the same time, will become an
inspiration for modernist writers.
Thus, he
introduces new topics, such as anxiety and secret aspirations
creates an artificial crisis his task is to find a solution to that crisis
his creation is a literary response to the social background
The question of national identity was crucial for H. James (for obvious
reasons he leaves America for England) because his characters try to avoid it. They
are fugitives, innocents expelled from Eden (America), who try to discover their
inner self (personality) away from home.
When coming to Europe, characters perceive it at 2 levels:
- fascinating world, full of cultural wonders;
- place of corruption, suffused with sinister and sexual knowledge of the world.
For example, in Daisy Miller, the main character goes to Rome, to the Forum,
an area that is presented to the reader as a dangerous one, malaria (Roman fever) is
said to originate there. At the end, Daisy dies of malaria symbolical.
In The Portrait of A Lady, Isabel Archer comes to England, travels to Italy
and ends up by making a disastrous marriage which is felt as frustrating by the
reader who cannot help sympathizing with her innocence.
On the art of the novel
He constantly meditated on the art of novel writing in his studies and prefaces
to his own novels. Their importance is continuously stressed by criticism as a
manifesto of the new Anglo-American type of fiction.
The Wings of the Dove is the story of a mans decision to give to a sick and very
rich woman a taste of happiness by marrying her. The author was tempted to make
nationalistic descriptions but he avoids the presentation of moral indecency in
every-day life.
The main character, Milly Theale, an American millionaire who travels to
Europe and who suffers from an incurable disease, falls in love with Merton
Densher, who wants to take advantage of her fortune but in his own complicated
way seems to love her.
The basic style of the novel is the indirect style; the author forces the reader
to look for the significance of the episodes, imagining the labyrinth of events
without giving him the key to these events.
He is exploring the consciousness of the characters by inviting the readers to
give significance to their acts, presenting the characters in an open manner during
the course of events. The second important manner of characterization is by using
conversation which allows a somewhat theatrical vision on reality. The characters
arent presented in their chronological evolution but by face to face confrontation
which provides that the plot presents a series of events based on the relations
established between the characters.
The Ambassadors The title is symbolic and announces that there will be some sort
of conflicting situation and encounters more or less ceremonial. Basically, we have
two connected stories, that of a young American, Chad Newsome, involved in a
strange love story in Europe and that of Lambert Strether who is sent by Chads
mother to bring him back to America. When he arrives to Europe, Strether
discovers that his mentality does not fit at all the experience of the European
culture; he is an idealist who preserves a great deal of innocence as compared to
Paris society; when he arrives he considers that Paris is the embodiment of
Babylon and Chad must be its victim.
However, the situation is more complex: Chad has become a European, a
very refined lover; hes not at all the victim of Mme de Vionnet. (quite the
opposite, she is the victim; he takes advantage of her)
Strether also wants to explore the mysteries of European civilization, so his
personality is split between duty and pleasure, i.e. bringing Chad back vs.
investigating the beauty of European life. The analysis of Strethers consciousness
occupies an important place in the novel.
He meets Maria Gostrey, who becomes a sort of guide in this process of
Europeanization of Strethers. She plays the role of an eye-opener, as she makes
him realize that the other ambassadors sent by Mrs. Newsome (Waymarsh and
Sarah Pocock) are limited and incapable to understand reality. When Waymarsh
and Sarah Pocock arrive, we realize that Strether has failed and his ambitions dont
exist anymore, he betrayed his mission. He however preserves his idealism and
gradually comes to understand the Old Continent and its complex structure; he
becomes a keen observer of the enriching experience he finds here.