Henry James (1843-1916)
Henry James once wrote that art, especially literary art, "makes
life, makes interest, makes importance." James's fiction and
criticism is the most highly conscious, sophisticated, and
difficult of its era. With Twain, James is generally ranked as the
greatest American novelist of the second half of the 19th
century.
James is noted for his "international theme" -- that is, the
complex relationships between na‹ve Americans and cosmopolitan
Europeans. What his biographer Leon Edel calls James's first, or
"international," phase encompassed such works as Transatlantic
Sketches (travel pieces, 1875), The American (1877), Daisy Miller
(1879), and a masterpiece, The Portrait of a Lady (1881). In The
American, for example, Christopher Newman, a na‹ve but intelligent
and idealistic self-made millionaire industrialist, goes to Europe
seeking a bride. When her family rejects him because he lacks an
aristocratic background, he has a chance to revenge himself; in
deciding not to, he demonstrates his moral superiority.
James's second period was experimental. He exploited new subject
matters -- feminism and social reform in The Bostonians (1886) and
political intrigue in The Princess Casamassima (1885). He also
attempted to write for the theater, but failed embarrassingly when
his play Guy Domville (1895) was booed on the first night.
In his third, or "major," phase James returned to international
subjects, but treated them with increasing sophistication and
psychological penetration. The complex and almost mythical The
Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) (which James felt
was his best novel), and The Golden Bowl (1904) date from this
major period.
If the main theme of Twain's work is appearance and
reality, James's constant concern is perception. In James, only
self-awareness and clear perception of others yields wisdom and
self-sacrificing love. As James develops, his novels become more
psychological and less concerned with external events. In James's
later works, the most important events are all psychological --
usually moments of intense illumination that show characters their
previous blindness. For example, in The Ambassadors, the
idealistic, aging Lambert Strether uncovers a secret love affair
and, in doing so, discovers a new complexity to his inner life. His
rigid, upright, morality is humanized and enlarged as he discovers
a capacity to accept those who have sinned.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
Like James, Edith Wharton grew up partly in Europe and eventually
made her home there. She was descended from a wealthy, established
family in New York society and saw firsthand the decline of this
cultivated group and, in her view, the rise of boorish,
nouveau-riche business families. This social transformation is the
background of many of her novels.
Like James, Wharton contrasts Americans and Europeans. The core of
her concern is the gulf separating social reality and the inner
self. Often a sensitive character feels trapped by unfeeling
characters or social forces. Edith Wharton had personally
experienced such entrapment as a young writer suffering a long
nervous breakdown partly due to the conflict in roles between
writer and wife.
Wharton's best novels include The House of Mirth (1905), The Custom
of the Country (1913), Summer (1917), The Age of Innocence (1920),
and the beautifully crafted novella Ethan Frome (1911).
COSMOPOLITAN NOVELISTS
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