Critical Essays on Henry James: The Early Novels, and: Critical Essays on Henry James: The Late Novels (review)

302 The Henry James Review the shade"; on Van Der Heyden's "Quay in Leyden:" "a compact pictorial sonnet. . . to üie homely charms of brickwork"; on a Virgin by Sassoferrato: she is "breathless with adoration, with her usual hard high polish of creamy white and chiUy blue." Incidental characterizations, for example, "die opulent serenity of Rubens," or tiiat Copley's "surfaces are more like carving than painting," still produce die "shock of recognition" which may be taken as a measure of critical success. At present, of course, critical evaluation or appreciation is out of style. In the seesaw of intellectual fashion, art as idea, protest, philosophy is up and art as an aesthetic experience is down, the "kind of criticism mat," as Kramer notes, "can be tested by the viewers' experience and sensibility." Which brings me to the disappointing aspects of this edition. Addressing himself to the educated readers of his time, James could assume familiarity with not only the old masters but with contemporaries such as Gérôme, Decamps, Daubigny, or Diaz. We cannot. Sweeney did not include illustrations in his edition, and their absence in this reprint is an even more serious omission. Black and white reproductions are no substitute for the real thing, but would at die least, especially for minor painters, provide die visual material needed to respond adequately to James's criticism. Without turning the edition into a ponderous work, die inclusion of footnotes on remote and faded figures and updating of Sweeney's notes would also have enhanced die usefulness of this volume to Jamesians and general readers alike. Sweeney's appendices have been brought up to date, though three relevant reviews listed in üie Edel and Laurence bibliography are omitted in Appendix A, and no mention is made of Parisian Sketches (1957), die collection of James's Herald Tribune letters, a more convenient source than newspaper microfilm. Although one item ("Hugh Merrow") was added to Appendix B, which lists fiction concerning the artist and the art works, a complete listing would include many more, for example, "Collaboration" and "A New England Winter." An alternative would be a footnote on the question of exclusions. Still, it is good to have this vademécum to James's art world available again. Viola Hopkins Winner Charlottesville, Va. James W. Gargano, ed. Critical Essays on Henry James: The Early Novels. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. 201 pp. $35.00. James W. Gargano, ed. Critical Essays on Henry James: The Late Novels. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. 212 pp. $35.00. In his twenty-nine page introduction to Critical Essays on Henry James: The Early Novels, James Gargano discusses the writer's life, summarizes die plots and critical reception of each novel up to and including The Tragic Muse, and comments briefly about issues that have bothered (essentially) pre-1980 and formalist critics of the novels. Gargano's next section, "Reviews and Contemporary Commentary," contains a generous and, for die most part, previously uncollected sampling of responses to James's work (such as HoweUs' review of The Tragic Muse). The longest section of the volume is devoted to "Recent Criticism." Most of die articles here are substantial, but they are also readily accessible elsewhere (James Tuttleton's centennial HJR essay on The American, for example, or Irving Howe's introduction to the 1956 edition of The Bostonians). The volume concludes with an article written for it (some parts have since appeared in The Museum World of Henry James) by Adeline Tintner on The Tragic Muse, in which she argues tiiat the example of the French tragic actress Rachel (as well as Jerome's painting of her) are crucial both to the career choice of Miriam Room and to die structure of the first half of tiiis carefully written, but still underappreciated novel. Book Reviews 303 The second volume on die late novels contains a similar mixture of overview (written from a traditional, conservative scholarly perspective); a sampling of reviews (useful because many selections are new and several of the old are classics such as Colby's "In Darkest James," Howells's "Mr Henry James's Later Work," and Conrad's "Henry James: An Appreciation"); and important "Recent...