Partial Portraits
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Partial Portraits'' is a book of
literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
by
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
published in 1888. The book collected essays that James had written over the preceding decade, mostly on English and American writers, but also on the works of
Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ''bo ...
,
Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
and Ivan Turgenev. Perhaps the most important essay was ''The Art of Fiction'', James' argument for the widest possible freedom in content and technique in
narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
.


Summary and themes

In his essay “The Art of Fiction”, Henry James suggests that, “the story and the novel, the idea and the form, are the needle and thread, and I never heard of a guild of tailors who recommended the use of the thread without the needle or the needle without the thread.” The essay ''The Art of Fiction'' was written in response to an article by English critic
Walter Besant Sir Walter Besant (14 August 1836 – 9 June 1901) was an English novelist and historian. William Henry Besant was his brother, and another brother, Frank, was the husband of Annie Besant. Early life and education The son of wine merchant Will ...
that attempted to establish the "laws of fiction." For instance, Besant insisted that novelists should confine themselves to their own experience: "A young lady brought up in a quiet country village should avoid descriptions of garrison life." James argued that a sufficiently alert novelist could obtain knowledge from everywhere and use it to good purpose: "The young lady living in a village has only to be a damsel upon whom nothing is lost to make it quite unfair (as it seems to me) to declare to her that she shall have nothing to say about the military. Greater miracles have been seen than that, imagination assisting, she should speak the truth about some of these gentlemen." James continually argues for the fullest freedom in the novelist's choice of subject and method of treatment: "The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting." In particular, James is suspicious of restraining fiction with specific moral guidelines: "No good novel will ever proceed from a superficial mind; that seems to me an axiom which, for the artist in fiction, will cover all needful moral ground." James followed his own advice in criticizing the various writers included in ''Partial Portraits''. In his essay on Maupassant, for instance, he wrote of the Frenchman's propensity for what James called the "monkeys' cage" view of human existence. But James from praisied Maupassant's vigour, precision and conciseness in describing life as he saw it. Similarly, James praised the intellectual force of George Eliot, the stolid but comprehensive detail-work of
Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...
, the unbounded imagination of
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
, and the genial common sense of
Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ''bo ...
. All very different writers, but all speak with validity from their personal view on life. This wide range presages the "house of fiction" image James would include in the ''
New York Edition The ''New York Edition'' of Henry James' fiction was a 24-volume collection of the Anglo-American writer's novels, novellas and short stories, originally published in the U.S. and the UK between 1907 and 1909, with a photogravure frontispiec ...
'' preface to ''
The Portrait of a Lady ''The Portrait of a Lady'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''Macmillan's Magazine'' in 1880–81 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James's most popular novels and is regarded by cri ...
'', where each novelist looks at life from a particular window of the house and thus composes a unique and personally characteristic account.


Table of contents


Critical evaluation

Although later critics have often disagreed with James' particular judgments of individual writers or works, almost all acknowledge that James helped to make narrative fiction discussable as one of the
fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...
. ''Partial Portraits'' contains some of James' most memorable and comprehensive essays on his fellow writers, and with grace and style he took their works seriously as artistic efforts of the first importance. A personal note is the essay on
Constance Fenimore Woolson Constance Fenimore Woolson (March 5, 1840 – January 24, 1894) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and is best known for fictions about the Great Lakes region, the Americ ...
, a woman who played an important if still uncertain role in James' life. This is the only essay in ''Partial Portraits'' on a writer of minor significance, and it has provided grist to the mill of biographical speculation.


References

*''Henry James Literary Criticism - Essays on Literature, American Writers, English Writers'' edited by Leon Edel and Mark Wilson (New York:
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
1984) *''Henry James Literary Criticism - French Writers, Other European Writers, The Prefaces to the New York Edition'' edited by Leon Edel and Mark Wilson (New York:
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
1984)


External links


"George Eliot's Life"
(reprinted as ''The Life of George Eliot''). ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''. 55: 668-678 (May 1885).
"Daniel Deronda: A Conversation"
''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''. 38: 684-694 (December 1876).
"Alphonse Daudet"
''
The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...
''. 26(4): 385-395 (July 1883).
"Anthony Trollope"
''
The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...
''. 26(4): 498-509 (July 1883).
"Du Maurier and London Society"
''
The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...
''. 26(4): 49-65 (May 1883).
Original magazine publication of the essay ''Robert Louis Stevenson'' (1888)Original magazine publication of the essay ''Ivan Turgénieff'' (1884)"The Art of Fiction"
''
Longman's Magazine ''Longman's Magazine'' was first published in November 1882 by C. J. Longman, publisher of Longmans, Green & Co. of London. It superseded ''Fraser's Magazine'' (published 1830 to 1882). A total of 276 monthly issues had been published when the la ...
''. 4: 502-521 (September 1884).
Note on the text of ''Partial Portraits''
at the
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
web site * {{Henry James 1888 non-fiction books Books by Henry James