Beauty and Blindness: Navigating the Techno-Body in Henry James’s “Glasses”

Though Henry James’s “Glasses” has received scant critical attention, Donatello Izzo’s Portraying the Lady (2001) has revived interest in this fascinating story. While Izzo focuses on the economies surrounding Flora Saunt in “Glasses,” this essay explores Flora Saunt’s body as a site of potential resistance. Balsamo’s chapter on cosmetic surgery in Technologies of the Gendered Body is used as a modern theoretical lens for examining Henry James’s “Glasses.” In pairing Henry James’s oft-overlooked story with Balsamo’s concept of the technologized body, the essay demonstrates the acute perception of “Glasses” as pertaining to the problems of disabilities at the intersection of gender and body narratives.