The much discussed early and middle and later manners of
James are only various campaigns of this one questing spirit,
changing his procedure as the elusive object of his search hid
itself by this or that device of protective coloration or swift
escape. It is as if a collector of rare butterflies had one
method of capturing them in Madagascar, another for the Orinoco,
and still another for Japan--though Henry James found his
Japan--and Orinoco and Madagascar all in London town!
No one who ever had the pleasure of hearing him discourse about
the art of fiction can forget the absolute seriousness of his
professional devotion; it was as though a shy celebrant were to
turn and explain, with mystical intensity and a mystic's
involution and reversal of all the values of vulgar speech, the
ceremonial of some strange, high altar. His own power as a
creative artist was not always commensurate with his intellectual
endowment or with his desire after beauty, and his frank contempt
for the masses of men made it difficult for him to write English.
Pages:
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290