"Perpetual Capital": Roderick Hudson, Aestheticism, and the Problem of Inheritance

This article reassesses James's class location, arguing that, as a non-productive rentier, Henry James Senior instilled in his son the primal fear of consuming the family's hoard of capital. I argue that this fear decisively shaped the aesthetic theory of the "impression" which James borrows from Walter Pater and develops in Roderick Hudson (1875). In the novel, James explores the economic and aesthetic dilemmas of hoarding versus expenditure: the need to save up impressions so as to produce a tangible return, as well as covertly expressing his fears that this investment might ultimately prove sterile and profitless.