The Beast in the Jungle
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''The Beast in the Jungle'' is a 1903
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
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 ...
, first published as part of the collection, ''The Better Sort''. Almost universally considered one of James' finest short
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 ...
s, this story treats appropriately universal themes:
loneliness Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perceived lack ...
,
fate Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...
,
love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
and
death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
. The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar destiny has spoken to many readers who have speculated on the worth and meaning of human life.


Plot summary

John Marcher, the protagonist, is reacquainted with May Bartram, a woman he knew ten years earlier while living in
southern Italy Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half. The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...
, who remembers his odd
secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...
: Marcher is seized with the belief that his life is to be defined by some catastrophic or spectacular event, lying in wait for him like a "beast in the jungle". May decides to buy a house in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
with the money she inherited from a great aunt, and to spend her days with Marcher, curiously awaiting what fate has in store for him. Marcher is a hopeless
fatalist Fatalism is a family of related philosophical doctrines that stress the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or destiny, and is commonly associated with the consequent attitude of resignation in the face of future events which are thou ...
, who believes that he is precluded from marrying so that he does not subject his wife to his "spectacular fate". He takes May to the theater and invites her to an occasional dinner, but does not allow her to get close to him. As he sits idly by and allows the best years of his life to pass, he takes May down as well, until the denouement where he learns that the great misfortune of his life was to throw it away, and to ignore the love of a good woman, based upon his preposterous sense of foreboding.


Major themes

Marcher may appear so eccentric and unrealistic in his obsession that his fate could seem irrelevant and unconvincing. However, many
critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
and ordinary readers have found that his
tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...
only dramatizes, with heightened effect, a common longing for an exalting
experience Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...
that will redeem an otherwise humdrum existence, although most individuals will not endure anything like Marcher's final revelation at May's graveside. The story has been read as a confession or parable about James' own life. He never married and possibly never experienced a consummated
sexual Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse ** ...
relationship. Although he did enjoy a thorough experience of aesthetic
creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...
, it is possible that he still regretted what he called the "essential loneliness" of his life. This biographical relevance adds another level of meaning to "The Beast in the Jungle".


Critical evaluation

James placed "The Beast in the Jungle" at the head of volume 17 of 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 ...
'' (1907–1909) of his fiction, along with another insightful examination of life and death, " The Altar of the Dead." Critics have almost unanimously agreed with the author's own high opinion of the tale, with some going so far as to put the story among the best short narratives in any literature. Critics have appreciated James' flash of insight in conceiving "''the'' man to whom nothing on earth was to have happened." They have also praised the tale's technique. Beginning in a neutral and rather diffident manner, the story builds to a climax of great power. Many critics have singled out the final paragraph for its intensity and
rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
al impact. In particular, the final sentence ends the tale with a succession of short (for James) but telling phrases:
The escape would have been to love her; then, ''then'' he would have lived. ''She'' had lived—who could say now with what passion?—since she had loved him for himself; whereas he had never thought of her (ah, how it hugely glared at him!) but in the chill of his egotism and the light of her use. Her spoken words came back to him, and the chain stretched and stretched. The beast had lurked indeed, and the beast, at its hour, had sprung; it had sprung in that twilight of the cold April when, pale, ill, wasted, but all beautiful, and perhaps even then recoverable, she had risen from her chair to stand before him and let him imaginably guess. It had sprung as he didn't guess; it had sprung as she hopelessly turned from him, and the mark, by the time he left her, had fallen where it ''was'' to fall. He had justified his fear and achieved his fate; he had failed, with the last exactitude, of all he was to fail of; and a moan now rose to his lips as he remembered she had prayed he mightn't know. This horror of waking—''this'' was knowledge, knowledge under the breath of which the very tears in his eyes seemed to freeze. Through them, none the less, he tried to fix it and hold it; he kept it there before him so that he might feel the pain. That at least, belated and bitter, had something of the taste of life. But the bitterness suddenly sickened him, and it was as if, horribly, he saw, in the truth, in the cruelty of his image, what had been appointed and done. He saw the Jungle of his life and saw the lurking Beast; then, while he looked, perceived it, as by a stir of the air, rise, huge and hideous, for the leap that was to settle him. His eyes darkened—it was close; and, instinctively turning, in his hallucination, to avoid it, he flung himself, on his face, on the tomb.


Cultural references


Film

*''The Beast in the Jungle'' is mentioned in the horror film, ''
The Screaming Skull ''The Screaming Skull'' is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white horror film, produced by John Kneubuhl and directed by Alex Nicol, starring John Hudson, Peggy Webber, Russ Conway, Tony Johnson, and Nicol. ''The Screaming Skull'' ...
'' (1958), as a book read by the female protagonist. *''The Beast in the Jungle'' is mentioned in the film '' Confidences trop intimes'' (2004). * The novella was adapted into a film of the same name in 2017 by Brazilian directors
Paulo Betti Paulo Sérgio Betti (born 8 September 1952) is a Brazilian actor, playwright, and stage director. He also works occasionally as film producer and director. Biography Paulo Sérgio Betti was born on 8 September 1952 in Rafard, a small town in the ...
,
Eliane Giardini Eliane Teresinha Giardini (born October 20, 1952) is a Brazilian actress. Although she had little career success until the age of forty, she is now considered one of Brazil's foremost actresses. Biography Giardini was born in Sorocaba, São Pau ...
and
Lauro Escorel Lauro Escorel Filho (born January 5, 1950), most known as Lauro Escorel, is an American-born Brazilian cinematographer and film director. He was born during his father, a Ministry of External Relations, stay in Washington, DC. He first worked a ...
. * The novella was adapted into a film of the same name in 2018 by Dutch director Clara van Gool. * The novella was adapted into a film of the same name in 2023 by Austrian director
Patric Chiha Patric Chiha (born 3 March 1975) is an Austrian film director, screenwriter and film editor of Hungarian and Lebanese origin. After directing several short films and documentaries, his first feature film, ''Domain'' (2009), premiered at the 2009 ...
. * The upcoming 2023 film '' The Beast'' by French director
Bertrand Bonello Bertrand Bonello (; born 11 September 1968) is a French film director, screenwriter, producer and composer. His background is in classical music, and he lives between Paris and Montreal. His work has also been associated with the New French Extre ...
was freely inspired by the novella.


Literature

*In
Phyllis Gotlieb Phyllis Fay Gotlieb (née Bloom; May 25, 1926 July 14, 2009) was a Canadian science fiction novelist and poet. Biography Born of Jewish heritage in Toronto, Gotlieb graduated from the University of Toronto with degrees in literature in 1948 ...
's science fiction novel ''Sunburst'' (1964), the protagonist Shandy summarizes this story when explaining why her feeling that she is somehow different from other people sometimes frightens her. *This story is the subject of a discussion between a few characters at the beginning of David Lodge's novel '' Author, Author'' (2004), a fictional re-imagining of the life of
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 ...
. *This story is referenced in
Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...
's sonnet, "
Ennui In conventional usage, boredom, ennui, or tedium is an emotional and occasionally psychological state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, is listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occup ...
" (2006).


Television

*"The Beast in the Jungle" is the final episode title of ''
The Haunting of Bly Manor ''The Haunting of Bly Manor'' is an American gothic romance drama streaming television miniseries created by Mike Flanagan, and released on October 9, 2020 by Netflix. The second entry in Flanagan's '' The Haunting'' anthology series, it mostly ...
'', based on James' other novella ''
The Turn of the Screw ''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in ''Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmill ...
'', and shares similar themes to it.


References

* ''Tales of Henry James: The Texts of the Tales, the Author on His Craft, Criticism'' edited by Christof Wegelin and Henry Wonham (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003) * ''The Tales of Henry James'' by
Edward Wagenknecht Edward (Charles) Wagenknecht (March 28, 1900 – May 24, 2004) was an American literary critic and teacher who specialized in 19th century American literature. He wrote and edited many books on literature and movies, and taught for many years at ...
(New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1984) * ''Here's to You, Mister Nichols: The Making of the Graduate,'' as influencing Mike Nichols' decision to cast Dustin Hoffman against type. Vanity Fair, March 2008. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/03/graduate200803


External links


The ''New York Edition'' text of ''The Beast in the Jungle'' (1909)
*

* ttp://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=64§ion=notes Note on the texts of ''The Beast in the Jungle''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
James, H. ''The Better Sort'', Methuen & Co.: London, 1903
a digitized copy from the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...


from Blackbird, an online journal of literature and the arts {{DEFAULTSORT:Beast in the Jungle, The 1903 short stories Short stories by Henry James American novellas Methuen Publishing books Short stories adapted into films