Seated alone with a book....

This article explores representations of reading and books in James's novels (specifically, The Portrait of a Lady, What Maisie Knew, The Awkward Age and The Golden Bowl). It begins by suggesting connections between Isabel Archer's reading and reading in Jane Eyre; it goes on to suggest that in the later novels James avoids direct representation of imaginative absorption in reading, and uses books rather more as signs and counters in social and cultural performances. Finally, it examines an account of James's own reading of Flaubert, and finishes by suggesting the presence of the writing room hidden behind the reading rooms in all the texts.