Henry James 1843-1916

1
Henry James 1843-1916
A novel is in its broadest sense a personal a
direct impression of life that, to begin with,
constitutes its value, which is greater or less
according to the intensity of the impression.
The metaphorsand The Turn of the Screw --house
of fiction etc.
2

• Father inherited wealth 3 million - became a
  self-
• styled philosopher bent on improving the
• human condition--transcendentalism
• Traveled extensively as a child..had few
  permanent
• friends..especially women
• Idealized his mother, and her death created a
  void
• in his life he tries indirectly to realize in
• his novelsthe governess
• Contracted malaria from travels in Europe
• Succession of private schools
• As a child, received a horrid and obscure hurt.
• Avid reader

3
-life spanned the Civil War to WWI -siblings
important for Tof S psychologist William and
sister Alice -influenced by theology,
philosophy, mysticism, social
Darwinism -European travels.two continent
author -Alice had bouts of depression,
contemplated suicide, died of cancer -William, a
professor at Harvard-rival to Henry--likewise
bouts of depression
4

• Mild stutterer--gave him time to think of nuances
  before
• talking
• Father was a self-styled Biblical
  scholar-- interested in Genesisto show it
  was more of a spiritual record than a literal
  one to
• rebut the literal read (Darwin)
• Father claimed to have seen an evil spirit (vi)
• Henry later to read the account
• Henrys brother also claimed to have seen
  spiritsbut perhaps a recollection of a very
  ill patient?
• Alice, James sister, had a nervous breakdown
• Became interested in Freudian psychology

5

• Failed as a dramatist--turned inward to the mind
• he (like a child) could make the
  rulesinterested
• in what makes a child an adult
• Said James, Children grow positively good only
  as they
• grow wise, and they grow wise only as they grow
• and leave childhood behind them.
• Reflected the Romantic perspective to make them
  good
• before their time is to make them wise
  before their time, which is a very
  painful consummation.
• These lines are autobiographical
• --fear of competition with his siblings
• --too much the introvert
• --mental illness in the family
• --gender ambiguity and artistic oblivion

6

• Some quotes..
• T of S is a story about a middle age man probing
  his youth
• If I keep alongI rather think I shall be
  significantly
• great man. Important for TURN OF THE SCREW
• On his mother She was our life, She was the
  house.
• I believe however that I have learned how to work
  and
• that it is in moments of forced idleness that
  these melancholy
• reflections seize me. When I work, I am really
  happy. I
• see many opportunities ahead. It is the only
  thing that makes
• life durableI shall be failure unless I do
  something great.
• His brother William said of Henry ..my younger
  and shallower brother
• He died a virginwrites of the missed life.
• One of his characters Live all you can

7

• VIEWS ON HIS SEXUALITY
• NEVER MARRIED
• LATENT HOMOSEXUALITY MILES AND PETER
  QUINT(but) ATTRACTED TO COUSIN MARY TEMPLE
• CONTEXT OF TURN OF THE SCREW
• written in 1897 --three years after a
  friends suicide --five years after Alices
  death --James himself painfully ill --novel
  published in installments in Colliers Mag.

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• Intellectual context
• --his own sexual views and loss of
  friends --Victorian interest in the repressed
  SHADOW --Dracula explores this repression --the
  interest in childhood as a separate stage of
  growth
• Member of Society for Psychical
  Research --William was president
• --interest in investigating ghosts
• --two friends of James told him of cases in
• which children were allegedly corrupted
• by ghosts and/or wicked servants
• --the 1848 story of the FOX sisters (hoax?)
• --see THE NORTON CRITICAL EDITION

9

• James on Turn of the Screw ( see Norton text)
• A Good ghost story must be connected at a hundred
  points with the common objects of life
• James wants the ghost insofar as it effects the
  persons
• to whom it allegedly appears vs. the Psych ghost.
  (123)
• We see the ghost through those who see
  themgoverness
• James creates a set of experiences that go beyond
  the
• physical in which he places his protagonists The
  extraordinary is most extraordinary in that it
  happens to you and me

10
James on the ghost (in addition to Norton) the
story is The record of what she thinks, she
feels, she believes, her narrative keeps clear
so many intense anomalies and obscurities by
which I dont of course mean her explanation of
them, a different matter. James refuses to
specify the nature of the evil directly He
argued that the evil should be very intense and
the particulars supplied by what the reader
brings to the experience from his own window in
the house of fiction.
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The three fold scope of the novel --entertainment
people like ghost stories --psychological
histories of disturbed people in a what appears
to be a sane world until --the
autobiographical NORTON NOTES -story from
Archbishop of Canterburyp. 112 -to
Waldsteinuse of the beautiful counterpart,
p.115 -to Wellswhat the governess must do, p.
116 -to Myers Howellsthe impression of
communication, p. 118 -RREFACE TO THE NY
EDITIONP. 123 ff
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• From the Norton Criticism..
• The sense of the charming to start
• The GERMfreedom of the imagination of the
• Viewpoint character
• What was his definite business?
• The long F.T. and the short F.T. imagination?
• James response to not having characterized the
• Governess--and see the Frame story
• James method is indirection
• Note especially the kind of ghosts James wants
• in the novel

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The frame story technique
1-Who is the I ? James as character to add
psychological realism I can see Douglas
2-The I links to Douglas as reliable
3--Douglas provides the link to the governess.
She was my sisters governess? The James
Douglas conversation authenticates Douglas and
by implication the Governess narrativeYou are
acute vs. others less astute (Griffin) the story
wont tell
4--the history of the governess (Douglas)
The narrative of the governess FIRST PERSON