"Sympathetic Exaggerations of Fact": Henry James's Early Years

Selected Papers on Henry James, 1988-1990 175 Bonney MacDonald—"Sympathetic Exaggerations of Fact": Henry James's Early Years AU tiiose who ask about [me reality] of our beliefs in front of a painting are certainly asking me wrong questions, nuisions are not false beliefs. —Gombrich, Illusion and Nature in Art In my remarks on the structure of Henry James's early career, I would like to begin with three "promissory" quotations from James's letters that were written before the publication of his first book in 1875. In 1873 he wrote to his mother: "I console myself with thinking I have a mine of impressions. Be patient aU of you, and you shaU see them assume the most enchanting of forms." The foUowing year, he wrote home to his family: "I shall immortalize myself: vous aller voir." And in 1875 he wrote to HoweUs: "I lift my hanging head little by little and try to earn the laurel for the future." Like many aspiring writers, Henry James was thinking about die profession of letters long before he could claim it as his own. Although James had been writing for magazines since 1864, it was not until 1875 that he saw his first published volume. This delay, however, was not caused simply by an inability to publish successfuUy. In contrast to this image of die artist struggling for recognition, James was a young American who was eager to travel and to experience Ufe in Europe. In the early 1870s, Henry James's work remained out of bound volumes not so much for lack of public response, but because he was still preparing to begin his vocation. The year of 1875 changed aU tiiat and stands out in James's life as tiie beginning of his professional career. In early 1875 James published his first book of tales, The Passionate Pilgrim (with Osgood); Transatlantic Sketches (at his father's expense); and Roderick Hudson in serial form for the Atlantic Monthly. It was also in 1875 that John Hay commissioned the newly expatriated writer as the Paris correspondent for the New York Tribune. Indeed, die triumphs of that year seemed to answer the promises of vocational and financial commitment that fiU James's early letters. Writing to his famüy from Story's Hotel in PicadiUy after his first twenty-four hours of expatriate life, James exuberantly projected his uncharted future: "Dear People aU," he boldly announced, "I take possession of the old world—I inhale it—I appropriate it!" When Henry James took hold of his future and "appropriated" Europe, he was thirty-two years old and had lived, until that time, a life of educated leisure. He had traveled through Europe as a child and had been reintroduced to it during his grand tour in 1869; three years later he returned to die Continent with his sister and aunt and remained until 1874. During these early years, he had wavered between art, science, and business, trying a Uttle painting and even attending law school for a few unproductive months. Henry James had seen much of the world and was, or so he and his family felt, a long time in choosing his future. But in 1875 he finaUy resolved the question of America vs. Europe and, more importantly, decided on his career. The decision to become a writer would mold the developing young man and would dictate not only his working hours but his entire moral and spiritual life. "Literature," as "The Figure in the Carpet" (1896) would later proclaim, is not merely a vocation; it is a game of 176 The Henry James Review sktil, "and skiU meant courage, and courage meant honour, and honour meant passion, meant life." Henry James had a good deal at stake, and in the faU of 1875 he pursued his newly defined vocation with fuU-time passion and determination. He had a chance to establish himself, repay his family debts, and build a reputation; by November he had made his mark. James befriended his Russian mentor, Turgenev, and became a regular part of the Thursday and Sunday evenings at die Viardot's in Montmartre. Settled in Paris, he also estabUshed himself as a...