If you’re planning on writing an essay or blog or some longer form dissection of James, let this comment be a nudge towards that, as I just bought most of James’ work and it should arrive by March! Will definitely read your thoughts on the matter alongside his works.
“The American,” “Daisy Miller,” and “The Portrait of a Lady” are of course the beginnings of what would become a major body of work. Good introductions for undergraduates, also. I love the Late Phase, and I would add “The Princess Casamassima”—one of his two “political” novels—to my list of favorites.
Literally finished Princess yesterday. Wild book, loved the Dickensian names. I had read “Virgin Soil” recently, and the interplay of the two added to the experience.
About 5 or so years ago, Colm Toibin gave a four lectures on The Portrait of a Lady and another four lectures on The Golden Bowl. The talks were sponsored by the 92nd Street Y here in NYC. I don’t know if they’ve ever made them available on YouTube or elsewhere, but it might be worth checking out. They were excellent.
Really interesting. I’m in the The Portrait of a Lady is one of the best English language novels ever and I couldn’t get on with the Golden Bowl at all!l camp. If you haven’t already do visit Lamb House in Rye where he was living when he wrote The Wings of the Dove and contains the golden bowl that inspired the book
If you want Lem probing into knowing the unknowable, I recommend *His Master's Voice* and "GOLEM XIV" (in *Imaginary Magnitude*). The fables are a very different project, informed by Denis Diderot, Jean de la Fontaine (and Adam Mickiewicz), as well as Polish legends and their poetic retellings by Bolesław Leśmian -- at least when it comes to what Lem does in them with old words brought into a far future universe. I find them beautiful and incredibly playful, but I've mostly read them in Polish, so the joy of the language games and neologisms is immediate.
I forgot to mention that Lilliput Press (Dublin) has just issued The Correction of Taste: The Late Fiction of Henry James by Denis Donoghue. It’s a collection of essays on his late novels, including The Golden Bowl. Intro by Colm Toibin
Also, if you are reading Scott at the same time, know that James remarked in a letter at the opening of WW1, that there is little it is possible now to read except Scott and one or two others. I can find it if you like
Inflicting upon the comments my shower-thought level takes: The Beast in the Jungle is like an inverse Oedipus Rex, where instead of being surprised that he has married his mom, he spends the whole play worrying that he might accidentally marry his mom.
I add: Absolutely, Wharton was a great novelist. She and James, as you must know, were great friends, and James was a great supporter of her work. Has this period—and the important literary editor and fine novelist, W. D. Howells, as well as the brilliant writer, Henry Adams—dropped from sight in our schools and colleges?
I haven't read much James, but The Beast in the Jungle was by far my favorite. A deeply humanistic story about the difficulty of forecasting low probability events over a long time horizon!
Is there a particular James to which tBitJ belongs? Because I would very much like to read more like that! The rest of the stories I've read felt... chilly? Aloof? I appreciated them more than I enjoyed them.
You might consider adding “The Sacred Fount” to your runup to TGB. It’s shorter, but absolutely nothing happens and you’ll be flipping back and forth constantly trying to figure out who is talking to whom. Contemporary critics thought it was a prank.
I read it last month. There’s really nothing to compare it to.
If you’re planning on writing an essay or blog or some longer form dissection of James, let this comment be a nudge towards that, as I just bought most of James’ work and it should arrive by March! Will definitely read your thoughts on the matter alongside his works.
“The American,” “Daisy Miller,” and “The Portrait of a Lady” are of course the beginnings of what would become a major body of work. Good introductions for undergraduates, also. I love the Late Phase, and I would add “The Princess Casamassima”—one of his two “political” novels—to my list of favorites.
Literally finished Princess yesterday. Wild book, loved the Dickensian names. I had read “Virgin Soil” recently, and the interplay of the two added to the experience.
About 5 or so years ago, Colm Toibin gave a four lectures on The Portrait of a Lady and another four lectures on The Golden Bowl. The talks were sponsored by the 92nd Street Y here in NYC. I don’t know if they’ve ever made them available on YouTube or elsewhere, but it might be worth checking out. They were excellent.
We got fifteen inches of snow last Sunday. I figured it was the perfect time to reread The House of Mirth. I was right.
Really interesting. I’m in the The Portrait of a Lady is one of the best English language novels ever and I couldn’t get on with the Golden Bowl at all!l camp. If you haven’t already do visit Lamb House in Rye where he was living when he wrote The Wings of the Dove and contains the golden bowl that inspired the book
I went a long time ago when I found his work insufferable
If you want Lem probing into knowing the unknowable, I recommend *His Master's Voice* and "GOLEM XIV" (in *Imaginary Magnitude*). The fables are a very different project, informed by Denis Diderot, Jean de la Fontaine (and Adam Mickiewicz), as well as Polish legends and their poetic retellings by Bolesław Leśmian -- at least when it comes to what Lem does in them with old words brought into a far future universe. I find them beautiful and incredibly playful, but I've mostly read them in Polish, so the joy of the language games and neologisms is immediate.
I forgot to mention that Lilliput Press (Dublin) has just issued The Correction of Taste: The Late Fiction of Henry James by Denis Donoghue. It’s a collection of essays on his late novels, including The Golden Bowl. Intro by Colm Toibin
Oh fun thank you
Gore Vidal had something say about The Golden Bowl: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/01/19/return-to-the-golden-bowl/
There's a great BBC adaptation of The Golden Bowl available in its entirety on YouTube. One of the best book-to-screen adaptations!
Also, if you are reading Scott at the same time, know that James remarked in a letter at the opening of WW1, that there is little it is possible now to read except Scott and one or two others. I can find it if you like
Yes please!
I’m afraid it’s not in my set of his selected letters
https://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2019/11/all-while-moving-to-this-grand-niagara.html
It all makes Walter Scott, him only, readable again
I remember enjoying this paper on it https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/1/39
I’m very pleased you liked it. I may be misremembering but think we discussed it briefly here..
Ambassadors also sublime.
I think after you're done with ‘The Ambassadors’ you may well have a new favourite James
Inflicting upon the comments my shower-thought level takes: The Beast in the Jungle is like an inverse Oedipus Rex, where instead of being surprised that he has married his mom, he spends the whole play worrying that he might accidentally marry his mom.
I add: Absolutely, Wharton was a great novelist. She and James, as you must know, were great friends, and James was a great supporter of her work. Has this period—and the important literary editor and fine novelist, W. D. Howells, as well as the brilliant writer, Henry Adams—dropped from sight in our schools and colleges?
I turned 66 this week, and I have never read James. Should I begin with Golden Bowl? Thanks!
You should look at a few things — Washington Square, Spoils of Poynton, What Maisie Knew—and decide what sort of James you enjoy I think
‘Spoils of Poynton’ first hooked me
I haven't read much James, but The Beast in the Jungle was by far my favorite. A deeply humanistic story about the difficulty of forecasting low probability events over a long time horizon!
Is there a particular James to which tBitJ belongs? Because I would very much like to read more like that! The rest of the stories I've read felt... chilly? Aloof? I appreciated them more than I enjoyed them.
Not necessarily ! It’s magnificent and extremely trying. I’d start with What Massie Knew .
You might consider adding “The Sacred Fount” to your runup to TGB. It’s shorter, but absolutely nothing happens and you’ll be flipping back and forth constantly trying to figure out who is talking to whom. Contemporary critics thought it was a prank.
I read it last month. There’s really nothing to compare it to.