Witnessing the Invisible: Narrative Mediation in The Princess Casamassima

This article addresses the difficulties of witnessing dramatized within The Princess Casamassima. Although James offers the novel as a glimpse of the London poor and the conspirators, we find that little is seen of them. Instead, we must watch as others fail to gain full access to these same "mysteries." I examine Hyacinth's struggle to see and satisfyingly narrate his experience in relation to the similar activities of Rosy, the Princess, and the conspirators. I suggest that the rupture between observation and narration is a central feature of James's own exploration of the narrative form of the novel.