The French Side of Henry James (review)

104 The Henry James Review of this book to promote a redefinition of die James canon, such fine criticism as this wül surely demand a return to some of the less read short fictions. Included here as well is a selection of excerpts from other James writings—the notebooks, prefaces and letters—that bear significantly on his theory and practice of the art of short fiction. The inclusion of a portion of James's essay on Maupassant is particularly welcome, reminding us of an often overlooked connection between tiiose writers tiiat Hocks effectively spodights in his brief introduction. The book concludes witii a helpful selected bibliography of criticism and with excerpts from four essays on the short fiction ülustrative of me range of critical approaches now available. AU the essays are recent (none earUer man 1981), and though Hocks notes die impossibUity of presenting a truly representative sample of recent criticism, his selection—reflecting film criticism on Daisy Miller, a deconstructive take on "The Aspern Papers," a quasistructuralist reading of framing in "The Tum of die Screw," and a formalist analysis of images in "The Beast in me Jungle"—manages to do a pretty fair job. Here as elsewhere Hocks is too modest. George Bishop D'YouvUle College Edwin Sill Fussell. The French Side of Henry James. New York: Columbia U P, 1990. 249 pp. $35.00. From F. R. Leavis to Robert Emmet Long, critics have argued over whemer James was more a British or an American noveUst. But as Edwin SUl Fussell asserts in The French Side of Henry James, this nationalistic debate has overshadowed another one, die issue of the extent to which James's work can and should be considered in die context of nineteendi-century France—its culture, its narrative fiction, even its language: "Articles on France and French in James are few and far between. Previous books on die subject ... fad adequately to get at James' French side eidier in deptÃ-i or in detaU" (x). Fussell cites as exemplary of such inadequacy Marie-Reine Garnier's Henry James et la France, Alberta Fabris' Henry James e la Francia, and Henry James: The Vision of France by Jeanne Delbaere-Garant. These books try to cover dieir subject too broadly and as a result only scratch the surface of the issue of the relation of James and his fiction to France and its culture, but Fussell has conveniendy ignored the existence of scores of books and articles mat have treated in detail at least some aspect of this complex relationship. PhUip Graver's Henry James and the French Novel, Lyall Powers's Henry James and the Naturalist Movement, William Stowe's Balzac, James, and the Realistic Novel, and Peter Brook's The Melodramatic Imagination, for example, may not be devoted to the subject of "France and French in James" precisely speaking, but mey certainly are valuable contributions to the subject. These books would not have been successful if mey had tried to cover exhaustively and encyclopedicaUy the entire subject of "die French side" of Henry James; rather, their value lies in their detailed and thorough treatment of one aspect of die relationship between James's fiction and France. Fussell's book contributes to the subject of James and France because it, too, limits its focus to a certain aspect of "the French side of Henry James" and in so doing makes it possible to cover this particular aspect in depth and with critical acuity. Fussell focuses on die way the French language and France (especially Paris) as a locale figure in James's novels. The French Side of Henry James examines the appearance of the French language in virtually all of James's novels and in a handful of die tales. Fussell devotes long sections and sometimes entire chapters to The Ambassadors, The Reverber- Book Reviews 105 ator, The Portrait of a Lady, The Tragic Muse, The American, The Princess Casamassima , and What Maisie Knew, and he mentions just about all of die rest of die novels at least in passing. The examination of the French language in the texts mat receive more extensive treatment is exhaustive, to the point where FusseU provides lists...