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literary studies, cultural history, and study skill techniques

literary studies, cultural history, and study skill techniques

Harold Nicolson Diaries 1907-1964

July 11, 2009 by Roy Johnson

20th century diplomacy, literature, and politics

Harold Nicolson was a writer, a politician, and a diplomat – but he is best known as the husband of Vita Sackville-West, and thus by proxy a figure on the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group. He was quite a complex character, and one of the few examples I have come across of someone from the upper reaches of society whose political opinions moved from right to left during the course of life, rather than the other way round. Harold Nicolson’s Diaries is a record of his multi-faceted life.

Harold Nicolson Diaries 1907-1964This book is a compilation of both his diaries and letters – principally to his wife, from whom he spent most of their married life apart, something that might well have contributed to the longevity of their curious union (outlined in their son’s fascinating Portrait of a Marriage). It covers an immensely long period in historical terms – starting before the first world war and continuing through a restless life of politics, literature, travel, and high society hob-nobbing until the advent of the Beatles.

He was the only member of the peace conference that followed the second world war who had also been present at the first. For the majority of these pages (which represent only a small part of his complete diaries) he was either a diplomat or an MP. Surprisingly, for a snob and elitist, he was very critical of the punitive reparations extracted by the allies in 1918 (which also caused John Maynard Keynes to resign from the commission). Nicolson also petitioned the prime minister for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens, and he was passionately opposed to war, having fully absorbed the lessons of 1914-1918.

Lots of famous figures whiz through the pages in cameo performances: Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, Noel Coward, three generations of UK royalty, Konrad Adenauer, James Joyce (“a difficult man to talk to”) – and it is quite obvious that Nicolson isn’t name-dropping. These were simply the circles in which he mixed.

This work throws his collection of character sketches Some People into sharp positive relief, because for all the famous people and the important scenarios he finds himself involved with here, there is none of the artistic flair and the dramatic compression of his fictionalised narratives.

He resigned from the diplomatic service at the end of 1929 and went to work for Lord Beaverbrook on the Evening Standard, which he hated. He considered journalism “a mere expense of spirit in a waste of shame. A constant hurried triviality which is bad for the mind.”

Then he was torn between writing and politics, whilst he and his wife waited impatiently for his mother-in-law to die, so that they could inherit and be spared any worries about money (having in the meanwhile bought a castle). Actually, she spited them both, and left her money to their son.

He eventually got a seat as MP for Leicester (which Vita refused to visit) and settled into a busy life as an active parliamentarian. The inter-war years coverage is full of the rise of fascism, Italy’s attack on Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the abdication crisis, and then the full drama of the second world war, which provide his most inspired entries.

Although on the surface his political allegiances moved leftwards, he was a great admirer of Churchill, and he eventually regretted joining the Labour Party. He never achieved high office, and when eventually awarded a knighthood, he was so snobbish he felt it as an insult, because he thought he ought to be made a member of the Lords – so that he could escape his ‘plebeian’ surname.

Modern readers will have to choke back opinions which seem to come out of the political ark:

I believe that our lower classes are for some curious reason congenitally indolent, and that only the pressure of gain or destitution makes them work.

You know how I hate niggers …But I do hate injustice even more than I hate niggers

But the effort of restraint necessary is eventually worth it – because of the insights he affords into the workings of the English upper class, the oblique glimpses we get into power politics, the guided tours through London clubland, and his revelations about people as diverse as the Duke of Windsor (‘eyes…like fried eggs’) and Henry James (‘a late-flowering bugger’).

© Roy Johnson 2005

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Nigel Nicolson (ed), Harold Nicolson’s Diaries 1907-1964, London: Orion Books, 2005, pp.511, ISBN 075381997X


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Filed Under: Harold Nicolson Tagged With: Biography, Bloomsbury Group, Cultural history, Harold Nicolson, Harold Nicolson's Diaries 1907-1964

Heart of Darkness

February 13, 2010 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, characters, resources, videos, writing

Heart of Darkness (1902) is a tightly controlled novella which has assumed classic status as an account of the process of Imperialism. It documents the search for a mysterious Kurtz, who has ‘gone too far’ in his exploitation of Africans in the ivory trade. The reader is plunged deeper and deeper into the ‘horrors’ of what happened when Europeans invaded the continent. This might well go down in literary history as Conrad’s finest and most insightful achievement, and it is based on his own experiences as a sea captain.

Joseph Conrad - portrait

Joseph Conrad


Heart of Darkness – plot summary

The story opens with five men on a boat on the river Thames. Marlow begins telling a story of a job he took as captain of a steamship in Africa. He begins by ruminating on how Britain’s image among Ancient Roman officials must have been similar to Africa’s image among nineteenth century British officials. He describes how his aunt secured the job for him. When he arrives in Africa, he encounters many men he dislikes as they strike him as untrustworthy. They speak of a man named Kurtz, who has a reputation as a rogue ivory collector, but who is “essentially a great musician,” a journalist, a skilled painter and “a universal genius.”

Joseph Conrad Heart of DarknessMarlow arrives at the Central Station run by the general manager, an unwholesome conspiratorial character. He finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays in repairing the ship all the more costly. Marlow eventually gets the parts and he and the manager set out with a few agents and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up river. The dense jungle and oppressive silence make everyone aboard a little jumpy and the occasional glimpse of a native village or the sound of drums works the voyagers into a frenzy.

Marlow and his crew come across a hut with stacked firewood together with a note saying that the wood is for them but that they should approach cautiously. Shortly after the steamer has taken on the firewood it is surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is attacked by an unseen band of natives, who fire arrows from the safety of the forest. A Russian trader who meets them as they come ashore, assures them that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who left the wood. Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and has gone on brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory.

Congo mapMarlow and his crew take the ailing Kurtz aboard their ship and depart. Kurtz is lodged in Marlow’s pilothouse and Marlow begins to see that Kurtz is every bit as grandiose as previously described. During this time, Kurtz gives Marlow a collection of papers and a photograph for safekeeping. Both had witnessed the Manager going through Kurtz’s belongings. The photograph is of a beautiful woman whom Marlow assumes is Kurtz’s love interest.

One night Marlow happens upon Kurtz, obviously near death. As Marlow comes closer with a candle, Kurtz seems to experience a moment of clarity and speaks his last words: “The horror! The horror!” Marlow believes this to be Kurtz’s reflection on the events of his life. Marlow does not inform the Manager or any of the other voyagers of Kurtz’s death; the news is instead broken by the Manager’s child-servant.

Marlow later returns to his home city and is confronted by many people seeking things and ideas of Kurtz. Marlow eventually sees Kurtz’s fiancée about a year later; she is still in mourning. She asks Marlow about Kurtz’s death and Marlow informs her that his last words were her name — rather than, as really happened, “The horror! The horror!”

The story’s conclusion returns to the boat on the Thames and mentions how it seems as though the boat is drifting into the heart of the darkness.


Study resources

Red button Heart of Darkness – Oxford University Press – Amazon UK

Red button Heart of Darkness – Oxford University Press – Amazon US

Red button Heart of Darkness – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Red button Heart of Darkness – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Red button Heart of Darkness – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

Red button Heart of Darkness – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

Red button Heart of Darkness – eBook version at Project Gutenberg – [FREE]

Red button Heart of Darkness – York Notes (Advanced) – Amazon UK

Red button Heart of Darkness – audioBook version (unabridged) – Amazon UK

Red button Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Casebook – Amazon UK

Red button Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ – criticism (Bloomsbury) – Amazon UK

Red button Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ – criticism (Chelsea) – Amazon UK

Red button Joseph Conrad: ‘Heart of Darkness’ – criticism (Icon) – Amazon UK

Red button Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ – criticism (Routledge) – Amz UK

Red button Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ – criticism (Penguin) – Amazon UK

Red button An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’

Red button Heart of Darkness – audioBook at LibriVox

Red button The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Red button Routledge Guide to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Red button Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad – Amazon UK

Red button Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia – biographical notes, links

Red button Joseph Conrad at Mantex – tutorials, web links, study resources

Heart of Darkness


Heart of Darkness – film adaptation

Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Heart of Darkness transforms events from Europe’s imperialist exploitation of the the Belgian Congo to America’s war in Vietnam in the 1960s. It remains amazingly faithful to the original, even whilst translating the settings and events into the fully mechanised assault of the world’s most powerful industrial nation against a country of poor farmers and peasants. Marlow becomes Captain Willard, who is sent on a mission to terminate (‘with extreme prejudice’) the command of rogue Major Kurtz, who has gone over the border into Cambodia with a band of followers.

Francis Ford Coppola adaptation 1979

Red button See reviews of the film at the Internet Movie Database


Principal characters
I an unnamed outer narrator who relays Marlow’s story
Marlow a ferry-boat captain, the principal character and narrator of events
Kurtz chief of the Inner Station of Belgian ivory traders
General manager chief of the Outer Station
Chief accountant impeccably dressed functionary
Pilgrims greedy agents of the Outer Station
Cannibals natives hired as steamer crew
Russian trader a disciple of Kurtz with patched clothes
Helmsman native sailor who is killed in the attack on the boat
Kurtz’s African mistress powerful and mysterious woman who never speaks
Kurtz’s ‘intended’ his devoted fiancee in Bussels
Aunt relative who secures Marlow his job

Biography


The Cambridge Companion to Joseph ConradThe Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad offers a series of essays by leading Conrad scholars aimed at both students and the general reader. There’s a chronology and overview of Conrad’s life, then chapters that explore significant issues in his major writings, and deal in depth with individual works. These are followed by discussions of the special nature of Conrad’s narrative techniques, his complex relationships with late-Victorian imperialism and with literary Modernism, and his influence on other writers and artists. Each essay provides guidance to further reading, and a concluding chapter surveys the body of Conrad criticism.

Buy the book at Amazon UK
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Joseph Conrad - manuscript page

Manuscript page from Heart of Darkness


Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a good introduction to Conrad and criticism of the text. It includes a potted biography, an outline of the novella, and pointers towards the main critical writings – from the early comments by his contemporaries to critics of the present day. The latter half of the book is given over to five extended critical readings of the text. These represent what are currently perceived as major schools of literary criticism – neo-Marxist, historicism, feminism, deconstructionist, and narratological.

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Further reading

Red button Amar Acheraiou Joseph Conrad and the Reader, London: Macmillan, 2009.

Red button Jacques Berthoud, Joseph Conrad: The Major Phase, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Red button Muriel Bradbrook, Joseph Conrad: Poland’s English Genius, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941

Red button Harold Bloom (ed), Joseph Conrad (Bloom’s Modern Critical Views, New Yoprk: Chelsea House Publishers, 2010

Red button Hillel M. Daleski , Joseph Conrad: The Way of Dispossession, London: Faber, 1977

Red button Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan, Joseph Conrad and the Modern Temper, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Red button Aaron Fogel, Coercion to Speak: Conrad’s Poetics of Dialogue, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1985

Red button John Dozier Gordon, Joseph Conrad: The Making of a Novelist, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1940

Red button Albert J. Guerard, Conrad the Novelist, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1958

Red button Robert Hampson, Joseph Conrad: Betrayal and Identity, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992

Red button Jeremy Hawthorn, Joseph Conrad: Language and Fictional Self-Consciousness, London: Edward Arnold, 1979

Red button Jeremy Hawthorn, Joseph Conrad: Narrative Technique and Ideological Commitment, London: Edward Arnold, 1990

Red button Jeremy Hawthorn, Sexuality and the Erotic in the Fiction of Joseph Conrad, London: Continuum, 2007.

Red button Owen Knowles, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990

Red button Jakob Lothe, Joseph Conrad: Voice, Sequence, History, Genre, Ohio State University Press, 2008

Red button Gustav Morf, The Polish Shades and Ghosts of Joseph Conrad, New York: Astra, 1976

Red button Ross Murfin, Conrad Revisited: Essays for the Eighties, Tuscaloosa, Ala: University of Alabama Press, 1985

Red button Jeffery Myers, Joseph Conrad: A Biography, Cooper Square Publishers, 2001.

Red button Zdzislaw Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Life, Camden House, 2007.

Red button George A. Panichas, Joseph Conrad: His Moral Vision, Mercer University Press, 2005.

Red button John G. Peters, The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Red button James Phelan, Joseph Conrad: Voice, Sequence, History, Genre, Ohio State University Press, 2008.

Red button Edward Said, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography, Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1966

Red button Allan H. Simmons, Joseph Conrad: (Critical Issues), London: Macmillan, 2006.

Red button J.H. Stape, The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Red button John Stape, The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad, Arrow Books, 2008.

Red button Peter Villiers, Joseph Conrad: Master Mariner, Seafarer Books, 2006.

Red button Ian Watt, Conrad in the Nineteenth Century, London: Chatto and Windus, 1980

Red button Cedric Watts, Joseph Conrad: (Writers and their Work), London: Northcote House, 1994.


Joseph Conrad - writing table

Joseph Conrad’s writing table


Other novels by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad The Secret AgentThe Secret Agent (1907) is a short novel and a masterpiece of sustained irony. It is based on the real incident of a bomb attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1888 and features a cast of wonderfully grotesque characters: Verloc the lazy double agent, Inspector Heat of Scotland Yard, and the Professor – an anarchist who wanders through the novel with bombs strapped round his waist and the detonator in his hand. The English government and police are subject to sustained criticism, and the novel bristles with some wonderfully orchestrated effects of dramatic irony – all set in the murky atmosphere of Victorian London. Here Conrad prefigures all the ambiguities which surround two-faced international relations, duplicitous State realpolitik, and terrorist outrage which still beset us more than a hundred years later.
Joseph Conrad Buy the book from Amazon UK
Joseph Conrad Buy the book from Amazon US

 

Joseph Conrad Under Western EyesUnder Western Eyes (1911) is the story of Razumov, a reluctant ‘revolutionary’. He is in fact a coward who is mistaken for a radical hero and cannot escape from the existential trap into which this puts him. This is Conrad’s searing critique of Russian ‘revolutionaries’ who put his own Polish family into exile and jeopardy. The ‘Western Eyes’ are those of an Englishman who reads and comments on Razumov’s journal – thereby creating another chance for Conrad to recount the events from a very complex perspective. Razumov achieves partial redemption as a result of his relationship with a good woman, but the ending, with faint echoes of Dostoyevski, is tragic for all concerned.
Joseph Conrad Buy the book from Amazon UK
Joseph Conrad Buy the book from Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2010


Joseph Conrad links

Joseph Conrad - tutorials Joseph Conrad at Mantex
Biography, tutorials, book reviews, study guides, videos, web links.

Red button Joseph Conrad – his greatest novels and novellas
Brief notes introducing his major works in recommended editions.

Joseph Conrad - eBooks Joseph Conrad at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats.

Joseph Conrad - further reading Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary career, style, politics, and further reading.

Joseph Conrad - adaptations Joseph Conrad at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production notes, box office, trivia, and quizzes.

Joseph Conrad - etexts Works by Joseph Conrad
Large online database of free HTML texts, digital scans, and eText versions of novels, stories, and occasional writings.

Joseph Conrad - journal The Joseph Conrad Society (UK)
Conradian journal, reviews. and scholarly resources.

Conrad US journal The Joseph Conrad Society of America
American-based – recent publications, journal, awards, conferences.

Joseph Conrad - concordance Hyper-Concordance of Conrad’s works
Locate a word or phrase – in the context of the novel or story.


More on Joseph Conrad
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Filed Under: Joseph Conrad, The Novella Tagged With: Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Literary studies, Modernism, study guide, The Novella

Henry James – biography

September 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

chronology and works of  The Master

Henry James - portrait by J.S. Sargeant
1843. Henry James was born on 15 April at Washington Place, New York City. His grandfather was one of the first American millionaires. Father a theologian and philosopher. James’s brother William became psychologist and author of Varieties of Religious Experience.

1845-55. Childhood in Albany (State capital) and New York City, plus travelling in Europe.

1855-58. Attends schools in Geneva, London, and Paris, and is privately tutored.

1858. Family settles in Newport, Rhode Island.

1859. At scientific school in Geneva. Studies German in Bonn.

1861. American civil war begins – James develops a bad back. Studies art briefly.

1862-63. Spends a year studying Law at Harvard.

1864. Family settles in Boston, then Cambridge. James starts writing – and publishing – short stories and reviews.

1865. His first story in Atlantic Monthly – prestigious journal which went on to publish more of his work.

1869-70. Travels in England, France, and Italy. Death of his beloved cousin, Minny Temple.

1870. Back in Cambridge (MA). Published first novel, Watch and Ward.

1872-74. Travels with his sister Alice and aunt in Europe – greater part in Paris and Rome. Begins Roderick Hudson.

1874-75. Returns to New York City, writing literary journalism for the Nation. Three books published – Transatlantic Sketches, A Passionate Pilgrim, and Roderick Hudson.

Henry James's study

Henry James’s study

1875-76. Spends a year in Paris – friendships with Flaubert, Turgenev, Zola, Daudet, and Edmund de Goncourt. Writes The American.

1876-77. Settles in London at Bolton Street, Picadilly. Visits Paris, Florence, and Rome.

1878. His story ‘Daisy Miller’ establishes his fame on both sides of the Atlantic. Writes critical essays French Poets and Novelists.

1879-82. Writes the great novels of his ‘early’ to ‘middle’ periods – The Europeans, Washington Square, Confidence, The Portrait of a Lady.

1882-83. Revisits America – the death of his parents.

1884-86. Resumes residence in London. His sister Alice comes to live near him. Publishes fourteen-volume collection of his novels and tales.

1886. Takes flat in De Vere Gardens. Publishes The Bostonians and The Princess Cassamassima.

1887. Long stay in Italy, mainly in Florence and Venice. ‘The Aspern Papers’, The Reverberator, ‘A London Life’. Friendship with Constance Fenimore Woolson (grand-niece of Fenimore Cooper) but remains a bachelor.

1888. Partial Portraits and various volumes of tales

1889. James begins to take an interest in the theatre – publishes The Tragic Muse.

1890-01. ‘The Dramatic Years’ James seeks to gain a reputation in the theatre. Dramatises The American, which has a short run. Writes four comedies, which are rejected by producers.

1892. Death of sister Alice James.

1894. Miss Woolson commits suicide in Venice. James journeys to Italy and visits her grave in Rome (c.f. – ‘The Beast in the Jungle’).

1895. His play Guy Domville is booed off stage on first night. James deeply depressed, abandons writing for the theatre and returns to novels.

1897. Settles at Lamb House in Rye, Sussex. Friendly with Joseph Conrad. Writes ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and What Masie Knew.

1899-1900. ‘The Late Period’. Begins composing by dictation. The Awkward Age, The Sacred Fount.

1902-1904. Writes The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl.

1905. Revisits United States after an absence of twenty-five years. Lectures on Balzac.

1906-10. The American Scene. Edits the twenty-four volume ‘New York Edition’ of his selected works and writes the prefaces which give an account of the genesis of the stories.

1910. Death of brother William James.

1913. Writes the autobiographical accounts A Small Boy and Others, and Notes of a Son and Brother.

1914. Notes on Novelists. Begins war work, visiting wounded in hospitals.

1915. Becomes a British subject.

1916. Given Order of Merit. Falls in love with a Swedish sailor, and dies thinking he is Napoleon. Ashes buried in Cambridge (MA).

1976. Commemorative tablet unveiled in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.


The Cambridge Companion to Henry JamesThe Cambridge Companion to Henry James is intended to provide a critical introduction to James’ work. Throughout the major critical shifts of the past fifty years, and despite suspicions of the traditional high literary culture that was James’ milieu, as a writer he has retained a powerful hold on readers and critics alike. All essays are written at a level free from technical jargon, designed to promote accessibility to the study of James and his work.


Henry James – web links

Henry James web links Henry James at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides, tutorials on the Complete Tales, book reviews. bibliographies, and web links.

Henry James web links The Complete Works
Sixty books in one 13.5 MB Kindle eBook download for £1.92 at Amazon.co.uk. The complete novels, stories, travel writing, and prefaces. Also includes his autobiographies, plays, and literary criticism – with illustrations.

Henry James web links The Ladder – a Henry James website
A collection of eTexts of the tales, novels, plays, and prefaces – with links to available free eTexts at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere.

Red button A Hyper-Concordance to the Works
Japanese-based online research tool that locates the use of any word or phrase in context. Find that illusive quotable phrase.

Henry James web links The Henry James Resource Center
A web site with biography, bibliographies, adaptations, archival resources, suggested reading, and recent scholarship.

Henry James web links Online Books Page
A collection of online texts, including novels, stories, travel writing, literary criticism, and letters.

Henry James web links Henry James at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of eTexts, available in a variety of eBook formats.

Henry James web links The Complete Letters
Archive of the complete correspondence (1855-1878) work in progress – published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Henry James web links The Scholar’s Guide to Web Sites
An old-fashioned but major jumpstation – a website of websites and resouces.

Henry James web links Henry James – The Complete Tales
Tutorials on the complete collection of over one hundred tales, novellas, and short stories.

Henry James web links Henry James on the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of James’s novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production features, film reviews, box office, and even quizzes.

© Roy Johnson 2009


More on Henry James
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Filed Under: Henry James Tagged With: Biography, Henry James, Literary studies

Henry James – web links

December 6, 2010 by Roy Johnson

a selection of web-based archives and resources

This short selection of Henry James web links offers quick connections to resources for further study. It’s not comprehensive, and if you have any ideas for additional resources, please use the ‘Comments’ box below to make suggestions.

Henry James - portrait by J.S. Sargeant

Henry James web links Henry James at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides, tutorials on the Complete Tales, book reviews. bibliographies, and web links.

Henry James web links The Complete Works
Sixty books in one 13.5 MB Kindle eBook download for £1.92 at Amazon.co.uk. The complete novels, stories, travel writing, and prefaces. Also includes his autobiographies, plays, and literary criticism – with illustrations.

Henry James web links The Ladder – a Henry James website
A collection of eTexts of the tales, novels, plays, and prefaces – with links to available free eTexts at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere.

Red button A Hyper-Concordance to the Works
Japanese-based online research tool that locates the use of any word or phrase in context. Find that illusive quotable phrase.

Henry James web links The Henry James Resource Center
A web site with biography, bibliographies, adaptations, archival resources, suggested reading, and recent scholarship.

Henry James web links Online Books Page
A collection of online texts, including novels, stories, travel writing, literary criticism, and letters.

Henry James web links Henry James at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of eTexts, available in a variety of eBook formats.

Henry James web links The Complete Letters
Archive of the complete correspondence (1855-1878) work in progress – published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Henry James web links The Scholar’s Guide to Web Sites
An old-fashioned but major jumpstation – a website of websites and resouces.

Henry James web links Henry James – The Complete Tales
Tutorials on the complete collection of over one hundred tales, novellas, and short stories.

Henry James web links Henry James on the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of James’s novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production features, film reviews, box office, and even quizzes.


The Cambridge Companion to Henry JamesThe Cambridge Companion to Henry James is intended to provide a critical introduction to James’ work. Throughout the major critical shifts of the past fifty years, and despite suspicions of the traditional high literary culture that was James’ milieu, as a writer he has retained a powerful hold on readers and critics alike. All essays are written at a level free from technical jargon, designed to promote accessibility to the study of James and his work.
Henry James Buy the book here

© Roy Johnson 2010


More on Henry James
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Filed Under: Henry James Tagged With: English literature, Henry James, Literary studies

Henry James and Cinema

May 23, 2016 by Roy Johnson

film adaptations of Henry James’s novels and stories

Following the popularity of his novels and stories in England and America, Henry James spent almost a decade trying to reproduce that success in dramatic form. He adapted novels for the theatre (The American) and wrote a number of original plays – none of which were commercially successful. Indeed a work into which he poured all his hopes (Guy Domville) resulted in his being booed off stage on its first night. It is therefore not without a certain historical and cultural irony that his stories and novels should have become so fruitful a source of dramatic content with the coming of the cinema and television.

The examples shown here range from his earliest, lighter novels (somewhat in the tradition of Jane Austen) to the later and much darker works. All of them translate well into what are generally classed as ‘costume dramas’, and the greatest deal with issues of profound moral complexity, which are well realised by some of the cinema’s greatest actors.


The Europeans (novel 1878 – film 1979)

– video clip currently unavailable –

This is a very early novel by James which explores one of his favourite themes – the interaction of European and American cultures. In the autumn of 1850, the puritanical Mr. Wentworth receives two slightly bohemian visitors from Europe, Eugenia and Felix. One of Wentworth’s two daughters is instantly delighted by the pleasure and amusement Felix offers. A wealthy neighbour, Mr. Acton, is attracted to Eugenia, who is going through a divorce with a European aristocrat. There is a chance that the Americans are being used by the penniless Europeans – but the outcomes are evenly divided.

Directed by James Ivory. Screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Starring – Lee Remick (Baroness Eugenia Munster), Robin Ellis (Robert Acton), Wesley Addy (Mr Wentworth), Tim Choate (Clifford Wentworth), Lisa Eichhorn (Gertrude). Filmed in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, USA.

Henry James and Cinema The Europeans – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Europeans – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Europeans – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Europeans – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Ghostly Rental (story 1876 – film 1999)

James’s original story is not much more than a folk tale with a mild ghostly element – the most notable element of which is that it features someone who impersonates a ghost. In this updating and radical transformation a mysterious, morbid professor who has suffered a number of horrid events in his life tries to help a young troubled man, whose girl friend was killed during an illegal abortion. Produced by the master of horror movies, Roger Corman.

Filmed as The Haunting of Hell House Directed by Mitch Marcus. Produced by Roger Corman. Screenplay by Marcus and Lev L. Spiro. Starring Michael York (Professor Ambrose), Andrew Bowen (James Farrow), Claudia Christian (Lucy), Aideen O’Donnell (Sarah).

Henry James and Cinema The Haunting of Hell House – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Ghostly Rental – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema Complete Works of Henry James – Kindle eBook – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Complete Works of Henry James – Kindle eBook – Amazon US


Daisy Miller (novella 1878 – film 1974)

Daisy Miller is one of Henry James’s most famous stories. On the surface it’s a simple enough tale of a spirited young American girl visiting Europe. Her behaviour doesn’t sit easily with the conservative manners of the time. She pushes the boundaries of acceptable behaviour to the limit, and ultimately the consequences are tragic. Peter Bogdanovich puts lots of colour and light into his adaptation, which features Cybil Shepherd, who was his lover at the time and at the height of her fame, having just been the star of his earlier movie The Last Picture Show.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Screenplay by Frederick Rafael. Starring – Cybil Shepherd (Daisy Miller), Harry Brown (Frederick Winterbourne), Cloris Leachman (Mrs Ezra Miller), Mildred Natwick (Mrs Costello), Eileen Brennan (Mrs Walker). Filmed in Rome and Lazio, Italy, and Vevy, Switzerland.

Henry James and Cinema Daisy Miller – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema Daisy Miller – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema Daisy Miller – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Daisy Miller – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


Washington Square (novel 1880 – film 1949)

This is a simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. She has a handsome young suitor – but her father disapproves, believing him to be a fortune hunter. There is a battle of wills – all conducted within the confines of their elegant town house. Who wins in the end? You will be surprised by the outcome. The plot of the novel is based upon a true story told to Henry James by the British actress Fanny Kemble.

Filmed as The Heiress (1949). Directed by William Wyler. Screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. Starring – Olivia de Haviland (Catherine Sloper), Montgomery Clift (Morris Townsend), Ralph Richardson (Doctor Austin Sloper), Miriam Hopkins (Aunt Lavinia Penniman). Aaron Copland is credited with having composed the theme music, but he denied it.

Henry James and Cinema The Heiress – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema Washington Square – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema Washington Square – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Washington Square – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Portrait of a Lady (novel 1880 – film 1996)

A young American woman is invited to live in Europe and discover her full potential. She is immediately the subject of romantic interest by three rich and eligible bachelors. But when she unexpectedly inherits a fortune she chooses a man with no money who devotes himself to aesthetic matters. Slowly she realises that he has a guilty secret and is turning her life into a nightmare. Jane Campion (The Piano) creates a visually spectacular adaptation, and John Malkovich turns in one of his masterful performances as the sadistic husband.

Directed by Jane Campion, Screenplay by Campion and Laura Jones. Starring – Nicole Kidman (Isabel Archer), John Malkovich (Gilbert Osmond), Barbara Hershey (Madame Serena Merle), Mary-Louise Parker (Henrietta Stackpole), Martin Donovan (Ralph Touchett), John Gielgud (Mr Touchett), Shelly Winters (Mrs Touchett), Richard E. Grant (Lord Warburton). Filmed in England and in Florence, Lucca and Rome, Italy.

Henry James and Cinema The Portrait of a Lady – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Portrait of a Lady – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Portrait of a Lady – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Portrait of a Lady – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Bostonians (novel 1885 – film 1984)

A Boston female rights campaigner and a conservative Southern lawyer contend for the heart and mind of a beautiful and bright girl unsure of her future. The principal subject matter of the story is ‘The Woman Question’ – that is, the conflict between traditional views of the role of women in society, and the views of suffragists and what today would be called supporters of women’s liberation. It also touches on the psychologically ambiguous issue of ‘The Boston Marriage’ – two independent women living together.

Directed by James Ivory. Produced by Ismail Merchant. Screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Starring – Vanessa Redgrave (Olive Chancellor), Christopher Reeve (Basil Ransome), Madaleine Potter (Verena Tarrant), Jessica Tandy (Miss Birdseye), Wesley Addy (Dr Tarrant). Filmed in Boston and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA.

Henry James and Cinema The Bostonians – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Bostonians – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Bostonians – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Bostonians – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Altar of the Dead (story 1885 – film 1978)

This is an interesting experiment that compresses and updates three Henry James stories into one. The story is set in a small French town after the end of the first world war. Julien Davenne is a journalist whose wife Julie died a decade ago. He gathers a collection of her memorabilia into a green room. When a fire destroys the room, he renovates a little chapel and devotes it to Julie and other dead friends. A late work from avant-guard director Francois Truffaut (with sub-titles). It is based on – The Altar of the Dead, The Beast in the Jungle and The Way It Came.

La Chambre Verte (The Green Room) Directed by Francois Truffaut. Produced by Truffaut and Marcel Berbert. Screenplay by Truffaut and Jean Gruault. Starring – Francois Truffaut (Julien Navenne), Nathalie Baye (Cecile Mandel), Jean Daste (Bernard Humbert). Filmed in Calvados, France.

Henry James and Cinema The Green Room – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Altar of the Dead – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema Complete Works of Henry James – Kindle eBook – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Complete Works of Henry James – Kindle eBook – Amazon US


The Aspern Papers (novella 1888 – film 1947)

A rich literary bachelor in pursuit of a famous poet’s love letters comes up against the elderly woman to whom they were once addressed. She still has the letters in her possession, but she also has no money and a daughter for whom she wishes to find a husband. A battle of wills ensues, set in her crumbling Venetian palace. The elderly woman dies without making a will, so the bachelor is faced with a moral dilemma – and he hesitates dangerously.

Filmed as The Lost Moment Directed by Martin Gabel. Produced by Walter Wanger. Screenplay by Leonardo Bercovici. Starring – Robert Cummings (Lewis Venable), Susan Heyward (Tina Bordereau), Agnes Moorhead (Juliana Bordereau). [Please excuse the dubbed voiceover.]

Henry James and Cinema The Aspern Papers – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Aspern Papers – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Aspern Papers – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Aspern Papers – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Pupil (story 1891 – film 1996)

A young university graduate is hired by a rich family to act as private tutor to their precocious son. He develops a close relationship with the boy, and he also realises that the parents neglect their son and don’t pay their debts. When a financial crash looms, the family try to pressure the tutor into taking the boy into his own care. The tutor hesitates, and the delay proves fatal.

This is a Polish adaptation, filmed as L’éleve. Directed by Oliver Schatzky. Screeplay by Schatzky and Eve Deboise. Starring – Vincent Cassel (Julien), Caspar Salmon (Morgan), Caroline Cellier (Emma), Jean-Pierre Marielle (Armand). Filmed in Krakow, Poland.

Henry James and Cinema L’éleve – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Pupil – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema Complete Works of Henry James – Kindle eBook – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Complete Works of Henry James – Kindle eBook – Amazon US


What Masie Knew (novel 1897 – film 2012)

This adaptation transfers the events of the novel from nineteenth century London to New York in the twenty-first century. When a young couple are enmeshed in a messy divorce and custody battle, they neglect the welfare of their daughter, who comes under the protection of an old friend of the family.

Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel. Screenplay by Nancy Doyne and Caroll Cartwright. Starring – Julianne Moore (Susanna), Alexander Skarsgard (Lincoln), Onata Aprile (Masie), Joanna Vanderham (Marge), Steve Coogan (Beale). Filmed in New York City, USA.

Henry James and Cinema What Masie Knew – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film at the Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema What Masie Knew – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema What Masie Knew – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema What Masie Knew – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Turn of the Screw (novella 1898 – film 1961)

A young governess is employed to look after two children in a remote country house. She becomes convinced that her young charges are possessed by the ghosts of two former servants. The whole house seems charged with a malevolent and vaguely erotic menace, and the governess has nobody to turn to for help. The outcome is truly horrible.

This amazingly complex ghost story has been adapted several times for the cinema. The best version is by British director Jack Clayton and filmed as The Innocents. There is also a Spanish version filmed as Presence of Mind and a prequel directed by Michael Winner called The Nightcomers starring Marlon Brando.

Directed by Jack Clayton. Screenplay by John Mortimer and Truman Capote. Starring – Deborah Kerr (The Governess), Peter Wyngarde (Peter Quint), Meg Jenkins (Mrs Grosse), Michael Redgrave (The Uncle), Martin Stephens (Miles), Pamela Franklin (Flora). Filmed in East Sussex and Shepperton Studios, Surrey, UK.

Henry James and Cinema The Innocents – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Turn of the Screw – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Turn of the Screw – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Turn of the Screw – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Wings of the Dove (novel 1902 – film 1997)

An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the heiress is attracted to her own lover and is dying, she sees a chance to have both the privileged life she cannot give up and the lover she cannot live without.

This is a lush and beautiful film version of the novel from director Iain Softley. His London scenes are successful, but the film really comes alive visually in Venice. Even the costumes were nominated for an Academy award in this outstanding production which captures faithfully the spirit of the original novel.

Directed by Ian Softley. Screenplay by Hossein Amini. Starring – Helena Bonham Carter (Kate Croy), Linus Roache (Densher Merton), Charlotte Rampling (Aunt Maude), Michael Gambon (Mr Croy), Alison Elliott (Milly Theale). Filmed in Venice, Italy and London, UK.

Henry James and Cinema The Wings of the Dove – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Red button Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Wings of the Dove – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Wings of the Dove – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Wings of the Dove – Oxford Classics – Amazon US


The Golden Bowl (book 1904 – film 2000)

The story concerns an extravagantly rich American widower and his sheltered daughter, both of whom marry, only to discover that their respective mates, a beautiful American expatriate and an impoverished Italian aristocrat, are entangled with one another in a romantic intrigue of seduction and deceit.

Merchant-Ivory pull out all the stops in their repertoire for creating lush period detail. Costumes, furniture, jewellery, and art objects all help to recreate a convincing fin de siècle atmosphere. The inclusion of original film footage from early last century adds tremendously to the period flavour.

Directed by James Ivory. Produced by Ismail Merchant. Screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Starring – Kate Beckinsale (Maggie Verver), James Fox (Colonel Assingham), Anjelica Huston (Fanny Assingham), Nick Nolte (Adam Verver), Jeremy Northam (Prince Amerigo), Uma Thurman (Charlotte Stant). Filmed in Rome, Italy, and London and Lincolnshire, UK.

Henry James and Cinema The Golden Bowl – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema Details of the film at the Internet Movie Database

Henry James and Cinema The Golden Bowl – a tutorial and study guide

Henry James and Cinema The Golden Bowl – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Henry James and Cinema The Golden Bowl – Oxford Classics – Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2016


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Henry James criticism

April 17, 2015 by Roy Johnson

annotated bibliography of criticism and comment

Henry James criticism is a bibliography of critical comment on Henry James and his works, with details of each publication and a brief description of its contents. The details include active web links to Amazon where you can buy the books, often in a variety of formats – new, used, and as Kindle eBooks. The listings are arranged in three sections – Biography, Sexuality and Gender, and General criticism.

The list includes new books and older publications which may now be considered rare. It also includes print-on-demand or Kindle versions of older texts which are much cheaper than the original. Others (including some new books) are often sold off at rock bottom prices. Whilst compiling these listings I bought a brand new copy of Harry T. Moore’s excellent illustrated biography of Henry James in the Thames and Hudson ‘Literary Lives’ series for one penny.

Henry James criticism

Biography

Henry James at Work – Theodora Bosanquet, University of Michigan Press, 2007. A memoir of James’s working methods written by his former secretary.

Henry James: Autobiography – F.W. Dupee (ed), Princeton University Press, 1983. Three autobiographical volumes in one.

Henry James: A Life – Leon Edel, HarperCollins, 1985. This is now regarded as the definitive biography.

Henry James: A Life in Letters – Philip Horne (ed), Penguin Classics, 2001. An edited selection from James’s voluminous correspondence.

Henry James: The Imagination of Genius – Fred Kaplan, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. An alternative biography of James.

The Notebooks of Henry James – Oxford University Press, 1988. A glimpse into prliminary ideas, notes, and plans for the novels and shorter fiction.

Henry James – Harry T. Moore, Thames and Hudson, 1999. An illustrated biography and introduction to his work.


Sexuality and Gender

Henry James and Sexuality – Hugh Stevens, Cambridge University Press, 2008. A critical study in sexuality and gender.

Henry James’s Thwarted Love – Wendy Graham, Stanford University Press, 2000. Mental hygiene, sexology, psychiatry, and cultural anthropology.

A Woman’s Place in the Novels of Henry James – Elizabeth Allen, London: Macmillan Press, 1983. A study of female portrayal and characterisation in the novels.

Henry James, Women and Realism – Victoria Coulson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. The importance of women in James’s life and work.

Henry James: His Women and His Art – Lyndall Gordon, London: Virago Press, 2012. The role of significant women in James’s life and work.

Henry James and the Imagination of Pleasure – Tessa Hadley, Cambridge University Press, 2009. A study of the liberating power of sexuality in the later novels.

Portraying the Lady: Technologies of Gender in the Short Stories of Henry James – Donatella Izzo, University of Nebraska Press, 2002. A study of the cultural representation of femininity in James’s short fiction


General criticism

Henry James: A collection of critical essays – Leon Edel (ed), Prentice Hall, 1963. A selection of ‘modern’ critical studies.

Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and his Literary Circle – Miranda Seymour, Orion Hardbacks, 1988. James’s circle of writers in his later years.

A Companion to Henry James – Greg W. Zacharias, Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. A collection of critical essays and studies

Henry James and the Past: Readings into Time – Ian F.A. Bell, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991. James, consumerism and the new marketplace.

Meaning in Henry James – Millicent Bell, Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 1993. Ambiguity and interpretation in the major works.

Henry James (Modern Critical Views) – Harold Bloom (ed), Chelsea House Publishers, 1991. A collection of major critical essays.

Henry James’s Narrative Technique – Kirstin Boudreau, London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010. A study of consciousness in the author and his characters.

A Companion to Henry James Studies – Daniel Mark Fogel, Greenwood Press, 1993. Twenty original essays divided into sections on Criticism and Theory, Fiction, and Non-fiction.

Henry James’ American Girl: The Embroidery on the Canvas – Virginia C. Fowler, Madison (Wis): University of Wisconsin Press, 1984. The psychology, literary function, and cultural roots of the new American girl.

The Cambridge Companion to Henry James – Jonathan Freedman, Cambridge University Press, 1998. A collection of essays providing a critical introduction to James’s work.

Henry James: The Critical Heritage – Roger Gard (ed), London: Routledge, 2013. – A selection of critical essays first published in 1968.

Henry James: The Later Writing – Barbara Hardy, Northcote House Publishers, 1996. Close readings of the late novels, autobiography, travel writings, and criticism.

Henry James: A study of the short fiction – Richard A. Hocks, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1990. Close readings and critical analyses of the major short fictions.

Henry James Against the Aesthetic Movement – David Garret Izzo, McFarlane & Co Inc, 2006. Eleven essays on the middle and late fiction.

Transforming Henry James – Anna De Biasio (ed), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. New critical perspectives on issues of gender and sexuality, economics, friendship and hospitality, and visual culture.

Henry James and the Language of Experience – Colin Meissner, Cambridge University Press, 2009. Literary theory and close readings of James’s work argue for a redefinition of the aesthetic.

The Prefaces of Henry James – John Pearson (ed), Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993. James’s accounts of how his major works came to be created – written in 1912.

The Comic Sense of Henry James – Richard Poirer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967. A critical study of the early novels.

Henry James and the Philosophical Novel – Merle A. Williams, Cambridge University Press, 2009. The similarities between James’s later works and the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty; and the deconstructive strategies of Jacques Derrida.

Henry James: The Major Novels – Judith Woolf, Cambridge University Press, 1991. An introduction to the major novels for the non-specialist reader.

Henry James: A Collection of Critical Essays, Ruth Yeazell (ed), London: Longmans, 1994. A collection of stimulating critical writing plus an introduction to the author’s life and work, a chronology of important dates, and a selected bibliography.

© Roy Johnson 2015


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Henry James greatest works

September 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

the great novels, stories, and novellas

Henry James greatest works
Henry James writes in an elegant, leisurely style and he deals in the finer subtleties of moral life and human consciousness. He wrote relentlessly, copiously, and almost all of his work is first rate. His stories and novellas are just as good as his better-known novels; and he was also a major theorist of the novel and a perceptive critic. In his later work he begins to explore the interesting possibilities of ‘unreliable narrators’ – that is, people telling stories who may not know or reveal the whole truth.

It is interesting to note that for all James’ interest in the psychology of his characters and his avoidance of overt action as the mainsprings to his plots, many of his novels have been very successfully translated to the cinema screen. And more ironically still, for all the dramatic tensions which exist between his characters, his own attempts to write plays were regarded as a complete failure – by himself as well as by his critics.

If you have not read James before, you should begin with something shorter and written early in his career. His later prose style became increasingly mannered and baroque, as he explored the subtleties and moral complexities of social life in ever-increasing detail. Like fine wines, James is an acquired taste.

Henry James Washington SquareWashington Square (1880) is a superb early short novel – the tale of a young girl whose future happiness is being controlled by her strictly authoritarian (but very witty) father. She has a handsome young suitor – but her father disapproves of him, seeing him as an opportunist and a fortune hunter. There is a subtle battle of wills – all conducted within the confines of their elegant New York town house. Who wins out in the end? You will be surprised by the outcome. This is a masterpiece of social commentary, with a sensitive picture of a woman’s life. A good place to start if you have not read Henry James before.
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Henry James The Aspern PapersThe Aspern Papers (1888) is a psychological drama set in Venice which centres on the tussle for control of a great writer’s correspondence. An elderly lady, ex-lover of the writer, seeks a husband for her daughter. But the potential purchaser of the papers is a dedicated bachelor. Money is also at stake – but of course not discussed overtly. There is a refined battle of wills between them. Who will win in the end? As usual, James keeps the reader guessing. The novella is a masterpiece of subtle narration, with an ironic twist in its outcome. This collection of stories also includes three of his accomplished long short stories – The Private Life, The Middle Years, and The Death of the Lion.
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Henry James The Spoils of PoyntonThe Spoils of Poynton (1896) is a short novel which centres on the contents of a country house, and the question of who is the most desirable person to inherit it via marriage. The owner Mrs Gereth is being forced to leave her home to make way for her son and his greedy and uncultured fiancee. Mrs Gereth develops a subtle plan to take as many of the house’s priceless furnishings with her as possible. But things do not go quite according to plan. There are some very witty social ironies, and a contest of wills which matches nouveau-riche greed against high principles. There’s also a spectacular finale in which nobody wins out.
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Henry James Daisy MillerDaisy Miller (1879) is a key story from James’s early phase in which a spirited young American woman travels to Europe with her wealthy but commonplace mother. Daisy’s innocence and her audacity challenge social conventions, and she seems to be compromising her reputation. But when she later dies in Rome the reader is invited to see the outcome as a powerful sense of a great lost potential. This novella is a great study in understatement and symbolic power.
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Henry James The BostoniansThe Bostonians (1886) is a novel about the early feminist movement. The heroine Verena Tarrant is an ‘inspirational speaker’ who is taken under the wing of Olive Chancellor, a man-hating suffragette. Trying to pull her in the opposite direction is Basil Ransom, a vigorous young man to whom Verena becomes attracted. The dramatic contest to possess her is played out with some witty and often rather sardonic touches, and as usual James keeps the reader guessing about the outcome until the very last page.
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The Oxford World Classics are the best editions of James’s work. They are largely based on the most accurate versions of the texts; and they feature introductory essays, a biography, explanatory notes, textual variants, a bibliography of further reading, and in some cases missing or deleted chapters. They are also terrifically good value.

Henry James What Maisie KnewWhat Maisie Knew (1897) A vulnerable young girl is caught between parents who are in the middle of personal conflict, adultery, and divorce. Can she survive without becoming corrupted? It’s touch and go – and not made easier for the reader by the attentions of an older man who decides to ‘look after’ her. This comes from the beginning of James’s ‘Late Phase’, so you need to be prepared for longer and longer sentences. In fact it’s said that whilst composing this novel, James switched from writing longhand to using dictation – and it shows if you look carefully enough – part way through the book.
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Henry James The AmbassadorsThe Ambassadors (1903) Lambert Strether is sent from America to Paris to recall Chadwick Newsome, a young man who is reported to be compromising himself by an entanglement with a wicked woman. However, Strether’s mission fails when he is seduced by the social pleasures of the European capital, and he takes Newsome’s side. So a second ambassador is dispatched in the form of the more determined Sarah Pocock. She delivers an ultimatum which is resisted by the two young men, but then an accident reveals unpleasant truths to Strether, who is faced by a test of loyalty between old Europe and the new USA. This edition presents the latest scholarship on James and includes an introduction, notes, selected criticism, a text summary and a chronology of James’s life and times.
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Henry James The Golden BowlThe Golden Bowl (1904) is the climax of James’ late period. The writing is mannered, baroque, complex, and focused intently on the psychological relationships between his characters. There is very little ‘plot’ here in the conventional sense. The bowl in the title is a gift from one couple to another – but there’s a lot more to it than that of course. It will not be giving away too much of the story to say that it concerns an American heiress as she becomes aware of the secret affair between her new husband and her father’s young wife.

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The Cambridge Companion to Henry JamesThe Cambridge Companion to Henry James is intended to provide a critical introduction to James’ work. Throughout the major critical shifts of the past fifty years, and despite suspicions of the traditional high literary culture that was James’ milieu, as a writer he has retained a powerful hold on readers and critics alike. All the essays in this compilation are written at a level free from technical jargon, designed to promote accessibility to the study of James and his work.

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Henry James – web links

Henry James web links Henry James at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides, tutorials on the Complete Tales, book reviews. bibliographies, and web links.

Henry James web links The Complete Works
Sixty books in one 13.5 MB Kindle eBook download for £1.92 at Amazon.co.uk. The complete novels, stories, travel writing, and prefaces. Also includes his autobiographies, plays, and literary criticism – with illustrations.

Henry James web links The Ladder – a Henry James website
A collection of eTexts of the tales, novels, plays, and prefaces – with links to available free eTexts at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere.

Red button A Hyper-Concordance to the Works
Japanese-based online research tool that locates the use of any word or phrase in context. Find that illusive quotable phrase.

Henry James web links The Henry James Resource Center
A web site with biography, bibliographies, adaptations, archival resources, suggested reading, and recent scholarship.

Henry James web links Online Books Page
A collection of online texts, including novels, stories, travel writing, literary criticism, and letters.

Henry James web links Henry James at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of eTexts, available in a variety of eBook formats.

Henry James web links The Complete Letters
Archive of the complete correspondence (1855-1878) work in progress – published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Henry James web links The Scholar’s Guide to Web Sites
An old-fashioned but major jumpstation – a website of websites and resouces.

Henry James web links Henry James – The Complete Tales
Tutorials on the complete collection of over one hundred tales, novellas, and short stories.

Henry James web links Henry James on the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of James’s novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production features, film reviews, box office, and even quizzes.

© Roy Johnson 2010


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Filed Under: Henry James Tagged With: Daisy Miller, Henry James, Literary studies, Roderick Hudson, The Ambassadors, The Aspern Papers, The Bostonians, The Golden Bowl, The novel, The Portrait of a Lady, The Spoils of Poynton, The Turn of the Screw, The Wings of the Dove, Washington Square, What Masie Knew

Henry James illustrated life

November 8, 2015 by Roy Johnson

biography with period illustrations and photographs

Henry James illustrated life is a biography of the great writer in Thames and Hudson ‘s Literary Lives series. It features a scholarly but accessible account of his career surrounded by lavish illustrations and photographs that capture all the amazing cultural depth of his experience, plus a visual record of the literary modernism which he helped to bring about. When I bought my brand new copy from Amazon recently, it cost me the princely sum of one penny.

Henry James

Henry James came from a distinguished American family. His grandfather had been a poor Irish immigrant who as an energetic businessman made himself into one of the first American millionaires. James’s father wanted nothing to do with commerce, and became a religious philosopher instead (whilst living on the family’s money). James junior was born in New York in 1843 near what is now Washington Square. The family travelled to England and Germany, setting up a pattern of transatlantic allegiances that James was to maintain throughout his life.

He was educated in New York and in what was to become the state capital, Albany. Friends of the James family included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, and William Makepeace Thackery. The young James read Dickens and was delighted by further visits to London and Paris. He was educated by private tutors, but his somewhat erratic father suddenly decided that American schools were better than European, so the family moved back home and settled in Newport, Rhode Island (where a number of James’s early short stories are set).

A year later James pere decided the exact opposite, and the family went to live in Geneva, where James attended a local technical school. But when he and his elder brother William decided they wanted to study painting they all returned to Rhode Island. By that time the American Civil War had broken out, but neither of the two elder James brothers were to see service. William went back to Europe to study medicine, and Henry after a brief spell at Harvard studying law, gave it up and began to publish his first short stories.

In 1869 he made his first solitary trip to Europe (paid for by his family) and visited London, Florence, and Rome. While he was there he met a number of contemporary artists – William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John Ruskin. He was also introduced to George Eliot whom he described as a ‘horse-faced bluestocking’. On outward and return journeys, he took the waters at Malvern for his ailment of persistent constipation.

He returned home, but was so enamoured with Europe that he immediately arranged to go back again as escort to his sister and her aunt on what for him became an extended two year visit. He repaid his expenses on this trip by writing travel essays for the Nation. These were later published as Transatlantic Sketches (1875).

There was an experimental period of living in Europe with his brother William, but the elder James decided to commit himself to America, whilst Henry made what he called his ‘Great Decision’ and stayed there, taking up residence on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. His novel Roderick Hudson (1875) was a big success, and through it he met Turgenev, Flaubert, Zola, and Maupassant.

Despite these attractions and being lionised by the literary establishment in general, James felt he would always be an outsider in Paris, so in 1876 he moved to live in London, which eventually became his permanently adopted country of residence.

Settled there, but with annual excursions to France and Italy, he began to produce the string of successful works of his early and middle period – The American (1877), The Europeans (1878), Daisy Miller (1878), and Washington Square (1880). He also wrote his first undisputed masterpiece, The Portrait of a Lady (1881). His literary output (stories, tales, novels, criticism, and travel books) was so prodigious around this time that Macmillan in England brought out a fourteen volume collection of his works.

Harry Moore’s biography speculates tactfully about James’s ‘private life’ if also rather inconclusively. We now know that James avoided the possibilities of marriage with myriad sophistical excuses, and only very late in life did he allow his latent homosexual tendencies to surface with anything like free rein.

The next major event in his life was his flirtation with the theatre. He spent enormous amounts of time, effort and his own money trying to create a success on the stage. It was all to no avail. He wrote several plays, but none of them were successful either critically or commercially. His final throw of the dice came in 1895 when he put everything into his latest production, Guy Domville. But when he appeared for a curtain call at the end of its opening night, he was booed off the stage.

Following this catastrophe, and disappointed with London society, he moved to live in Rye, Sussex. He also returned to his first love, the novel, producing The Spoils of Poynton (1897), What Masie Knew (1897), and The Awkward Age (1899). He also capitalised on some of his unsuccessful plays by turning their plots into the substance of novels such as The Other House (1896) and The Outcry (1911) – but it has to be said that these compositions are not amongst his most successful works.

The period that followed after 1900 is generally known as James’s ‘major phase’. In it he produced a series of hugely impressive novels, all of them written in his now-famous but rather demanding style of elaborately rich and often very convoluted sentences exploring the psychological subtleties of his characters and the dramatic situations in which he placed them. The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904) are now widely regarded as the high-points of his achievement and masterpieces of modern literature.

And yet following this artistic zenith James plunged into a prolonged despair. The twenty-four volume celebratory New York edition of his collected works did not sell well. Even though his lifestyle was quite lavish he was seriously short of money. His friend and fellow-novelist Edith Wharton secretly arranged an advance of $8,000 through their publisher (Scribners) and put his name forward for the Nobel Prize – but it was rejected.

At the outbreak of the First World War he became a British citizen as a gesture of solidarity with his adopted country. But the following year he suffered a series of strokes which affected his mind, and he spent his final days dictating letters which were almost word-for-word copies of Napoleon’s correspondence that he had read many years before. He instructed his secretary to sign them in the Corsican manner – Napoleone.

© Roy Johnson 2015

Henry James illustrated life Buy the book at Amazon UK
Henry James illustrated life Buy the book at Amazon US


Harry T. Moore, Henry James, London: Thames and Hudson, 1974, pp.128, ISBN: 050026032X


Other works by Henry James

Henry James The BostoniansThe Bostonians (1886) is a novel about the early feminist movement. The heroine Verena Tarrant is an ‘inspirational speaker’ who is taken under the wing of Olive Chancellor, a man-hating suffragette and radical feminist. Trying to pull her in the opposite direction is Basil Ransom, a vigorous young man from the South to whom Verena becomes more and more attracted. The dramatic contest to possess her is played out with some witty and often rather sardonic touches, and as usual James keeps the reader guessing about the outcome until the very last page.

Henry James What Masie Knew Buy the book at Amazon UK
Henry James What Masie Knew Buy the book at Amazon US

Henry James What Masie KnewWhat Masie Knew (1897) A young girl is caught between parents who are in the middle of personal conflict, adultery, and divorce. Can she survive without becoming corrupted? It’s touch and go – and not made easier for the reader by the attentions of an older man who decides to ‘look after’ her. This comes from the beginning of James’s ‘Late Phase’, so be prepared for longer and longer sentences. In fact it’s said that whilst composing this novel, James switched from writing longhand to using dictation – and it shows if you look carefully enough – part way through the book.

Henry James What Masie Knew Buy the book at Amazon UK
Henry James What Masie Knew Buy the book at Amazon US

Henry James The AmbassadorsThe Ambassadors (1903) Lambert Strether is sent from America to Paris to recall Chadwick Newsome, a young man who is reported to be compromising himself by an entanglement with a wicked woman. However, Strether’s mission fails when he is seduced by the social pleasures of the European capital, and he takes Newsome’s side. So a second ambassador is dispatched in the form of the more determined Sarah Pocock. She delivers an ultimatum which is resisted by the two young men, but then an accident reveals unpleasant truths to Strether, who is faced by a test of loyalty between old Europe and the new USA. This edition presents the latest scholarship on James and includes an introduction, notes, selected criticism, a text summary and a chronology of James’s life and times.

Longstaff's Marriage Buy the book at Amazon UK
Longstaff's Marriage Buy the book at Amazon US


Henry James – web links

Henry James at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides, tutorials on the Complete Tales, book reviews. bibliographies, and web links.

The Complete Works
Sixty books in one 13.5 MB Kindle eBook download for £1.92 at Amazon.co.uk. The complete novels, stories, travel writing, and prefaces. Also includes his autobiographies, plays, and literary criticism – with illustrations.

The Ladder – a Henry James website
A collection of eTexts of the tales, novels, plays, and prefaces – with links to available free eTexts at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere.

A Hyper-Concordance to the Works
Japanese-based online research tool that locates the use of any word or phrase in context. Find that illusive quotable phrase.

The Henry James Resource Center
A web site with biography, bibliographies, adaptations, archival resources, suggested reading, and recent scholarship.

Online Books Page
A collection of online texts, including novels, stories, travel writing, literary criticism, and letters.

Henry James at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of eTexts, available in a variety of eBook formats.

The Complete Letters
Archive of the complete correspondence (1855-1878) work in progress – published by the University of Nebraska Press.

The Scholar’s Guide to Web Sites
An old-fashioned but major jumpstation – a website of websites and resouces.

Henry James – The Complete Tales
Tutorials on the complete collection of over one hundred tales, novellas, and short stories.

Henry James on the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of James’s novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production features, film reviews, box office, and even quizzes.

© Roy Johnson 2010


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Filed Under: Biography, Henry James Tagged With: English literature, Henry James, Literary studies, The novel

Herzog

April 25, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

Herzog (1964) won several literary prizes when it was first published, and was voted one of the best 100 novels written in English by Time magazine. As in the case of other major novels by Saul Bellow, it has a strong biographical basis. Herzog and Bellow were both Jewish academics and intellectuals from Chicago; they were the same age; and both had been twice married and divorced. Most tellingly, both their second wives had been involved in affairs with a husband’s best friend.

Herzog

The main feature of the novel which makes it very entertaining is the series of letters that Herzog writes to famous people, living and dead. He shares his hopes and fears with people he has never met (including God) and discusses abstract concepts with philosophers who were writing in the eighteenth century.


Herzog – critical commentary

Historical note

When it first appeared in 1964 Herzog was received generally as a comic novel – a knockabout story of a character who was disoriented and wrote letters to well-known political and historical figures. Herzog interrogates his relatives and friends, gives advice to famous politicians, and poses philosophic questions to writers who have been dead for centuries.

Bellow had invented earlier a new kind of free-wheeling narrator in his previous novel The Adventures of Augie March (1954) and he was perceived as a fresh voice from the well-educated streets of Chicago and New York. His novels offered ideas, rumbustious events plucked from modern American life, and lots of linguistic fun. He seemed willing to take an off-beat, radical approach to characterisation and his subject matter. As his protagonist Moses Herzog announces in the opening paragraph: ‘If I am out of my mind, it’s all right with me’.

But reading Herzog half a century later, it seems that the sense of fun has receded. Now it is quite clear that the novel was written out of a very painful experience of marital breakdown and the bitter consequences of divorce.

Bellow was also carving out what was to become the central issue of his later novels – the history of the Jewish immigrant experience in America. In Herzog he covers two generations – the first who arrived from Russia (and elsewhere) and endured poverty and hardships in order to make a new life for themselves in the New World. Then the second generation, who stood on their shoulders and had the choice of continuing the family’s Jewish traditions, or becoming fully assimilated as Americans

Biography

It’s quite clear on even the most cursory reading of this novel that it was based upon deeply felt personal experiences. Bellow makes very little effort to conceal the proximity of events in his narrative to the details of his own biography. Herzog is born in Canada of Russian Jewish immigrants, lives in Chicago, and becomes an academic, specialising in literature and intellectual history – exactly the same as Bellow himself.

Bellow had been married twice when he wrote the novel. He had also recently discovered that his second wife Sondra had been having an affair with his best friend Jack Ludwig. Many novelists use elements from their own lives as materials for their fiction. The question is – how does this affect our understanding and interpretation of their work?

The first thing to say is that novelists are under no obligation to be truthful, fair, accurate, or even-handed in their use of this autobiographical material. Fiction has its own rules, and novelists are at liberty to use their life experiences in any way they wish.

But the corollary for the reader is that the fictional results must not be taken as an accurate account of the writer’s life. Just as good biography should be an accurate account of events, and should not include fictional inventions, good fiction should not be taken as the base material for biographical interpretation.

However, it has to be said that this is a somewhat purist approach to literary interpretation. Most literary critics and commentators will use any information they have to pass judgement on writers and their work. Many people might argue that Bellow’s depiction of the character Madeleine reveals his deep-seated misogyny and is a form of fictional ‘revenge’ for the personal affront he felt from his wife’s betrayal.

The same could be said for the character of Valentine Gersbach – though interestingly, there is much less venom heaped upon him, and in general he is depicted as a more benign character. It is Madeleine who Herzog thinks he would like to murder, not his love rival Gersbach.

The letters

At the beginning of the novel we are led to believe that Herzog is writing letters to friends and relatives about the break-up of his marriage. Then as he becomes more desperate he starts writing to public figures and historical philosophers, many of whom died centuries earlier.

Then gradually it becomes clear that the letters are never posted, and finally that they are not written at all. The ‘letters’ are Herzog’s internal dialogue with friends, family, and ‘the dead’ – as well as a form of critical dialogue with the intellectual history of which he feels a part. In other words the ‘letters’ function as a metaphor. They represent one of the three strands of the narrative which focus attention relentlessly on Herzog and his state of mind:

  • third person omniscient narrator
  • Herzog as first person narrator
  • Herzog’s letters to others

Herzog’s actions, thoughts, and feelings are sometimes presented by a third person omniscient narrator, but Saul Bellow seamlessly blends this presentation of events with Herzog’s first person account of his experiences, and even his commentary on his own thoughts. These two narrative strands are then supplemented by the ‘thought letters’ – which are presented in the printed text by italics

Philosophy

The principal weakness in Herzog as in many of Bellow’s other novels, is the long-winded ‘philosophising’ that goes on in the protagonist’s search for a resolution to the contradictions he finds in his life. To these speculations he also adds what have been called ‘reading lists’.

These are long references to western writers and philosophers by which Bellow suggests he has a detailed knowledge of political thinking from Greco-Roman classics, through Renaissance thought, to Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, and anyone else worth mentioning in the twentieth century These names are offered up in a thick porridge of vague abstractions – a process which adds up to no more than a form of self-indulgent intellectual name-dropping. Bellow is far more successful when he sticks to deadpan (and very typically American) humour:

I am diligent. I work at it and show steady improvement. I expect to be in great shape on my deathbed.

Will never understand what women want. What do they want? They eat green salad and drink human blood.

Herzog

There is something of an embarrassment for the reader in dealing with Herzog as the protagonist – who is quite clearly a cipher for Saul Bellow and his concerns. Herzog is being offered as something of a loveable rogue – a man who has warm ties to his Jewish immigrant family and its traditions, who has been badly treated by his second wife and friends such as Gersbach and Himmelstein. He is also in the tradition of the holy fool – the naive intellectual with his mind on higher matters who repeatedly makes bad decisions on his own behalf and does absurd things such as painting a piano green.

But by the same token we can say that he is self-obsessed; he is erotically incontinent; he has established his home with money inherited from his father, and spends most of the novel living off his brothers; and it’s even possible to argue that he is something of an intellectual snob. He certainly spends lots of mental energy railing against the beautiful but clever woman who has deceived him (Madeleine). Yet he discounts and feels sceptical about the beautiful and loving, but not-so-clever woman whom he believes wants to ‘snare’ him (Ramona).

There is no shortage of self-criticism in Bellow’s characterisation of Herzog, but it’s also impossible to escape a certain sense of smugness and self-regard, even if his soul-searching is wrapped up in multiple references to western philosophers – or maybe even because it is.

Kafka

There are distinct elements of Franz Kafka at work in Herzog. Both writers feature protagonists in search of justice who at every turn of events seem to make their own predicaments worse. They both create heroes with friends who protest their support but then undermine or betray the protagonist in some way. Both Kafka and Bellow explore the dilemmas of characters who seek to maintain high ethical ideals in a world founded on lying, greed, and deception – characters whose efforts often result in comic misunderstandings or grotesque embarrassment.

Herzog gives himself up to shysters such as Sandor Himmelstein, but when offered genuine sympathy and comforting friendship from Phoebe Sissler and her husband, he runs away from their kindness, thinking it is a ‘mistake’. He is full of contradictions – and he knows it.

Herzog is also like a Kafka figure in that many of his problems have been brought on because of his erotic behaviour. He has had two wives, and chosen for the second a woman who has validated all his worst fears about entrapment and persecution. Madeleine is the vagina dentata writ large. She has stripped him of his material assets and humiliated him sexually by adultery with his best friend. Yet when he is offered comfort and sexual healing by his very attractive lover Ramona, what does he do but run away from her. All this is very neurotic behaviour.

Even his struggles with society at a political level have elements of what we now call the ‘Kafkaesque’. Franz Kafka’s protagonists struggle to understand the byzantine processes of the powers that control them (largely the bureaucracy of the Hapsburg empire). Similarly, Moses grapples hopelessly as an individual with the complexities of a society controlled partly by democracy, and partly by a ‘political machine’ which includes graft, corruption, vote-fixing, and gangsters. Even his own father was a bootlegger.

Moses is also grappling intellectually with issues of the western European philosophic traditions and their inability to grant him some sort of overarching understanding of the modern society in which he lives. He is lost in a world of Locke, Hume, Nietzsche, and Heidegger (so we are asked to believe) but meanwhile he doesn’t have the common sense to know that his wife is having an affair with his best friend.

Moses claims to be seeking resolution and peace of mind in a world full of conflicts – yet he positively embraces difficulties and hardship, even feeling the loss of them when they are not there. And this neurotic behaviour is expressed in distinctly Kafkaesque language and metaphors, including one of Kafka’s favourites – the vulture:

When a man’s breast feels like a cage from which all the dark birds have flown – he is free, he is light. And he longs to have his vultures back again. He wants his customary struggles, his nameless, empty works, his anger, his afflictions, and his sins.

Reflecting on the level of antipathy Herzog feels towards his ex-wife Madeleine who has betrayed him with his best friend, Bellow coins an epigram that could come straight out of Kafka’s diaries or notebooks:

It’s fascinating that hatred should be so personal as to be almost loving. The knife and the wound, aching for each other.


Herzog – study resources

Herzog Herzog – Penguin – Amazon UK

Herzog Herzog – Penguin – Amazon US

Herzog Herzog – Library of America – Amazon UK

Herzog Herzog – Library of America – Amazon US

Herzog Saul Bellow – Collected Stories – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Herzog Saul; Bellow – Collected Stories – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Herzog Saul Bellow (Modern Critical Views) – essays and studies – Amz UK

Herzog Saul Bellow (Modern Critical Views) – essays and studies – Amz US

Cambridge Companion to Saul Bellow – Amazon UK

Herzog


Herzog – plot summary

Moses Herzog is a Jewish academic who has moved from a large house in Berkshire to Chicago at the behest of Madeleine, his second wife. When Madeleine suddenly wants a divorce he leaves his home and his job and moves back to New York. City where he starts compulsively writing to people – both living and dead.

He consults a doctor, but there is nothing physically wrong with him. His lover Ramona invites him to take a holiday in her house, but fearing ‘commitment’ he travels instead to stay with some friends at Martha’s Vineyard.

He buys sporty summer clothes and thinks about Wanda, a married woman with whom he had an affair on a trip to Poland. He also reflects on relations with his mother in law and discussions about her with Simkin, his divorce lawyer.

On the train he thinks over Madeleine’s affair with his friend Gersbach and ‘writes’ to her aunt Zelda who has conspired in his deception.

His friend the zoologist Lucas Asphalter reveals Madeleine’s adultery with Gersbach. Herzog recalls analysis under Dr Edvig which spills over to include Madeleine. She becomes ill, goes on wild spending sprees, and finally attacks Herzog physically.

Herzog turns for help to his best friend Gersbach (with whom Madeleine is having the affair). Gersbach lectures him on dignity and suffering. Herzog writes letters to public figures, offering them advice.

He recalls a discussion between Madeleine and his old friend Schapiro about Russian culture. His letter to Schapiro is about political philosophy, but he also complains that Madeleine has been trying to take his place in the academic world. He borrows money from his brother Shura.

After the split with Madeleine, Herzog goes to stay with old friend Sandor Himmelstein, whose attitude becomes more and more critical. Sandor even tries to sell him some insurance., then hits him hard with Jewish sentimentalism.

Herzog arrives chez Libbie and her new husband Sissler in Martha’s Vineyard. They welcome him very warmly, but he immediately thinks the visit is a mistake. He leaves them an apologetic note and flies back home.

In New York he receives news of problems with his daughter who is living with Madeleine and Gersbach. He thinks back to a period when he was married to Daisy, involved with Japanese girl Sono, and preparing to leave them both for Madeleine.

In the early days of his relationship with Madeleine, she is a recent convert to Catholicism and full of guilt about adultery. But she gives up the Church, they get married, and go to live in the country, with the Gersbachs as neighbours. Madeleine squanders money, and they start to argue.

He looks back nostalgically on his first marriage to Daisy and reflects on his Jewish childhood. His father was a first generation immigrant and a small time bootlegger. The family have a drunken lodger and relatives who die back in Russia. Moses affectionately recalls the poverty yet warmth of the family in its early immigrant years.

Ramona phones with an invitation to dinner which he reluctantly accepts. He drifts into writing letters on political philosophy and drafting a proposal for an essay on ‘transcendence’. Then he recalls his relationship with Sono, his Japanese lover. She warns him against Madeleine, and in his imaginary letter to her he admits that she was right.

Ramona showers him with affection and understanding – but deep down he is reluctant. They discuss at length his problems with Madeleine and Gersbach.

He consults lawyer Harvey Simkin who urges him to take Madeleine and Gersbach to court and seek revenge. Herzog visits a courtroom where he witnesses a trial for child murder and he has a form of mild heart attack.

He flies to Chicago and visits his parents’ old house, recalling an argument with his father. Whilst there he secretly retrieves his father’s old pistol.

Fearing his own daughter might be at risk, he drives to Madeleine’s house with murder in mind. But when he sees Gersbackh bathing June, he cannot pull the trigger. He visits Gersbach’s wife Phoebe instead. She is in denial and claims that Gersbach is still living with her

He goes to stay with Lucas Asphalter with whom he discusses attitudes to death. He takes his daughter June out for the day, but becomes involved in a traffic accident. The police arrest him for carrying a loaded gun. Madeleine arrives at the police station, full of hostility. His brother Will is called to post bail.

After borrowing money from Will, he goes to his abandoned house in the Berkshires and sinks into eccentric behaviour. He begins a new series of letters to his psychiatrist, to Nietzsche, and to God.

His brother Will arrives, sees that Herzog is cracking up, and recommends medical care and rest. Herzog refuses and plans to invite his son Marco to stay.

Ramona visits a nearby town. He goes over, invites her to dinner, and begins cleaning up the house. He also finally decides to stop writing letters.


Herzog – principal characters
Moses Herzog a confused academic dreamer with marital problems
Madeleine his second wife, a beautiful and clever ball-breaker
Valentine Gersbach his neighbour and best friend, who has an affair with Madeleine
Dr Edvig psycho-analyst to both Herzog and Madeleine
Ramona Donsell a flower shop owner, Herzog’s attractive lover
Fritz Pointmueller Madeleine’s father, a theatrical impresario
Trennie Pointmueller his wife, Madeleine’s mother
Harvey Simkin Herzog’s divorce lawyer
Lucas Asphalter a zoologist and boyhood friend of Herzog
Schapiro an old friend of Herzog
Sandor Himmelstein a Chicago lawyer and friend of Herzog

© Roy Johnson 2017


More on Saul Bellow
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Filed Under: Saul Bellow Tagged With: English literature, Literary studies, Saul Bellow, The novel

Him with his Foot in his Mouth

July 14, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, web links

Him with his Foot in his Mouth first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly for November 1982. It is currently published with four other stories in a collection of the same name. The other stories are What Kind of Day Did You Have?, A Silver Dish, Cousins, and Zetland: By a Character Witness.

Him with his Foot in his Mouth


Him with his Foot in his Mouth – commentary

The surface detail of the story is Herschel Shawmut’s irrepressible urge to puncture pretentiousness and boredom with his insulting put-downs. Most of his victims deserve their fate. It is significant that the one person who doesn’t is the spinsterish librarian to whom he is writing with an apology.

Yet beneath this tragi-comic character sketch there are a number of serious social themes at work. Number one is Shawmut’s identity as a Jew in modern America. He is the son of Russian immigrants (as was Saul Bellow) and he has grown up with close ties to his family. He visits his dementia-stricken mother in a nursing home, and doesn’t resent the fact that she fails to recognise him, but talks admiringly of his rich brother Philip, who has recently plunged Herschel into debt with a crooked business scheme.

Philip has severed all his emotional ties with family and has assimilated with modern America by joining the worst excesses of dog-eat-dog capitalism. He is vulgar, wealthy, corrupt, and has a ‘perfect’ (perfectly horrendous) wife who breeds vicious pit-bull terriers.

Herschel Schawmut is qualified to fit into the intellectual milieu of college and university teaching that he inhabits. He has written a best-selling textbook on musical appreciation, and he conducts performances of classical music on television programs. But he feels himself an outsider, and his imaginative sympathies keep being drawn back to his early days as an immigrant. This is a theme Bellow had explored extensively in his earlier novel Humboldt’s Gift (1975) and he was to return to later in The Bellarosa Connection (1989).

The put-downs

Bellow is very fond of the quip and the one-liner in his writing. He quotes some of Winston Churchill’s bon mots approvingly and gives Herschel a series of witty (and insulting) put-downs which provide the basis for his feeling socially ostracised. The reader is invited to share the amusement factor because his victims are pretentious social bores, but Herschel’s indulgence and its negative consequences puts him into the category of the ‘holy fool’

A talkative woman apologises at the end of dinner: ‘I realize now that I monopolized the conversation, I talked and talked all evening. I’m so sorry. . . . ‘That’s all right,’ I told her, ‘You didn’t say a thing.’ ”

When a wealthy philanthropic lady announces that she is going to write her memoirs, he asks her ‘Will you use a typewriter or an adding machine?’

Schulteiss was one of those bragging polymath types who give everybody a pain in the ass. Whether it was Chinese cookery or particle physics or the connections of Bantu with Swahili (if any) or why Lord Nelson was so fond of William Beckford or the future of computer science, you couldn’t interrupt him long enough to complain that he didn’t let you get a word in edgewise … One of the guests said to me that Schulteiss was terribly worried that no one would be learned enough to write a proper obituary when he died. “I don’t know if I’m qualified” I said, “but I’d be happy to do the job, if that would be any comfort to him.”

Story or novella?

This piece could be considered as a long story or a short novella. Bellow was fond of both literary genres. But there are a number of arguments for classifying it as a novella. The strongest of these is the fact of there being so many unifying literary elements in the work.

Everything is mediated through the perspective of one character – Shawmut himself as first-person narrator. It has his anti-social joking as a recurrent theme and the initiating purpose in the plot – his letter of apology and explanation to Clara Rose.. It deals with his increasing sense of alienation – ending logically enough in his exile across the Canadian border, with the police at his heels. It has a number of other characters – but they all function as fictional entities in relation to Shawmut himself.

It’s true that the story does not have any strict unity of place – but none of the locations are imaginatively developed, nor do they have any special bearing on the events of the narrative.

Recurrent figures

Crooked businessmen and rapacious lawyers are recurrent figures in Bellow’s fiction – but so too are best friends who turn out to be Judas-characters, and even brothers who cheat members of their own family.

Philip Shawmut, Herschel’s bother, claims to be a successful businessman – but his success is built on corruption and illegality. When he learns that Herschel has spare money, he relieves him of it, claiming it is going into a scheme reclaiming spare parts from accident-wrecked motor vehicles. The scheme is in fact a cover for stolen luxury cars that are being cannibalised for parts in short supply. And the money invested goes straight to the account of Philip’s wife. When the business is exposed as fraudulent and Philip dies, Herschel is left as legal director with a mountain of debt.

It is not surprising that Bellow works into the narrative references to Balzac’s Cousin Bette and Cousin Pons – both of them novels that concern betrayal by relatives and instances of the greed to acquire someone else’s wealth. For good measure he also includes mention of King Lear.

Herschel is befriended by Eddie Walish in his early days as a teacher of music, but the same friend sends him a comprehensive account of all his personal weaknesses and faults thirty-five years later. The message is quite plain: you can’t trust anybody. And you certainly cannot trust lawyers, who not only give you bad advice and present enormous bills for their services, but also squeeze you for special favours.


Him with his Foot in his Mouth – resources

Him with his Foot in his Mouth – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Him with his Foot in his Mouth – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Humboldt’s Gift Saul Bellow – Collected Stories – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Humboldt’s Gift Saul; Bellow – Collected Stories – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow (Modern Critical Views) – essays and studies – Amz UK

Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow (Modern Critical Views) – essays and studies – Amz US

A Saul Bellow bibliography

Cambridge Companion to Saul Bellow – Amazon UK

Him with his Foot in his Mouth


Him with his Foot in his Mouth – synopsis

Herschel Shawmut is writing to retired librarian Carla Rose to apologise for an offensive quip he made at her expense thirty-five years previously. He recalls his early days at the college where they both worked. He was befriended by Eddie Walish who has recently written him a letter listing all his faults – one of which is his habit of insulting people with cruel one-liner put-downs.

Shawmut is writing from retreat in Vancouver, British Columbia where he is hiding ‘on legal advice’. He has alienated himself from local intellectual society by his gaucheness and his put-downs.

He explains his ambiguous relationship with America as a Jew and a feeling of being an outsider. He writes approvingly of the radical Jewish and homosexual poet Alan Ginsburg as a similar character. Despite his self-awareness he continues to make amusing but socially disruptive remarks amongst his university colleagues and their wives.

He has been swindled by his rich brother Philip and has employed lawyers to fight the case. His brother is a ‘creative businessman’ with whom he has invested money, largely for sentimental reasons of family loyalty. The money has been used in illegal land deals, and following Philip’s death Shawmut is responsible for the company’s debts. He appoints his brother-in-law Hansl Genauer as legal advisor and absconds to Canada to avoid prosecution.

Shawmut visits his mother in a nursing home, but she does not recognise him. Genauer tries to gain control of his money, and then extracts favours from him. But Shawmut then insults a rich woman Genauer wishes to marry. In the end, Shawmut is in complete retreat in Vancouver, expecting the US authorities to arrive at any time to arrest him.


Him with his Foot in his Mouth – characters
Herschel Shawmut an elderly Jewish professor of classical music
Gerda Shawmut his wife, who is dying
Philip Shawmut his brother, a rich ‘creative businessman’
Hansl Genauer his brother-in-law, a dubious lawyer
Carla Rose a retired librarian living in Florida
Eddie Walish a literary professor, once Shawmut’s friend

© Roy Johnson 2017


More on Saul Bellow
More on the novella
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Filed Under: Saul Bellow Tagged With: English literature, Literary studies, Saul Bellow, The Short Story

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