In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER 9 ^Desperate ^Leisure To make one live in others, this is the highest effect o f religion as well as of art, and possibly it will be the highest bliss we shall ever know. HOWELLS, 189 5 Howells viewe d hi s fou r year s i n Venic e a s " a grea t part , a vital part" o f hi s youth . H e state d tha t h e woul d neve r fee l "exiled " from Venice . H e believe d tha t th e cit y altere d "th e whol e cours e of [his ] literary life. " I n Venice , Howell s becam e a "gentleman, " by his own definitio n someon e "who has trained himsel f i n moral s or religion, i n letters , an d i n the world." Give n th e "measureless " leisure o f hi s consula r post , h e expande d hi s knowledg e o f litera ture , history, and art, extended his facility i n languages, and honed his powers o f observation. Th e resul t o f these labors was Venetian Life (1866), the boo k tha t mad e "friend s wit h fortune " an d gaine d his entree to Boston.1 The persona l achievemen t o f Howells' s Venetia n year s i s ex pressed i n his idea that the "gentleman" is someone who has disciplined hi s impulse s s o tha t hi s manne r grow s "naturall y ou t o f habits o f self-comman d an d consequen t habitua l self-respect." 2 While in Venice, Howell s maintaine d a n edge of self-control agains t his feeling s o f uselessnes s an d despair . H e too k Lowell' s advic e 218 DESPERATE LEISUR E 2 I 9 deeply t o heart , steerin g clea r o f hi s "Heine-leeshore, " sweatin g out Heine' s influenc e u as me n d o mercury. " Lowell' s strenuou s images precisel y conve y Howells' s determine d effort . Althoug h Howells foun d tha t th e leisur e o f hi s consula r pos t wa s measure less , h e als o found tha t i t was "desperate." 3 Adherin g t o Lowell' s vision of a moral universe required a drastic turn of mind, on e that denied the insights Howells derived from hi s desultory experience . Consequently, th e identit y h e forme d i n Venic e wa s on e of com promise rather tha n tru e synthesis . Believin g that h e could fai l n o more, Howell s mad e healthy-mindednes s hi s desperate necessity . But th e feelin g persiste d tha t h e had conclude d to o hastily . Late r in life, Howell s returned t o the problems he had determinedly pu t aside in Venice. On 1 5 Decembe r 1861 , eigh t day s afte r hi s arriva l b y nigh t i n Venice, Howell s recorde d hi s initia l impression s i n his diary. H e had bee n dazzle d b y th e city' s spectacula r beaut y a s he glided b y gondola to a hotel resting at the water's edge. Nevertheless, he had felt a n "intolerabl e despondenc y o f spirit. " Intens e sadnes s befor e decayed magnificence wa s a conventional aesthetic posture, but his feeling genuinel y expresse d th e burden s h e ha d carrie d wit h hi m from America . "Th e emptines s o f m y life , th e vaguenes s o f m y purposes—were befor e me, " h e reflected , "an d i t seeme d al l s o hopeless an d insane . I did no t kno w wh y I had wandere d hither , nor what I should d o in after year s (to be spent, pleas e God! ami d the hard an d earnest struggl e of my native land)—with th e experience to be garnered i n the indolent desolation of Venice."4 Utterly alon e fo r th e first tim e i n hi s life , Howell s sa w hi s problems wri t larg...

Share