"Too Real": Teaching, Reading, Living Henry James

Taking Henry James into the classroom means the instructor faces difficulties that extend beyond matters of difficult style. This essay cites the obstacles this author has had in trying to overcome students' resistance to the psychological demands exacted when dealing with the layers of reality (both literal social data and intrusions of the transcendent) imposed by the reading of Jamesian narratives. It notes the contemporary theories of "the real" James puts on display in The Ambassadors. It also tracks instances when his characters' encounters with "the too real" releases them and James's readers alike from being bound by the limitations of literal literary social realism.