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Robert Emmet Long. The Great Succession: Henry James and the Legacy of Hawthorne. Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1979. 203 pp. $12.95. Robert Emmet Long's The Great Succession: Henry James and the Legacy of Hawthorne provides not only the most thorough and informed study to date of this important topic but quite likely the definitive study In fiction through The Boston 1 ans. In ten chapters—five have appeared in slightly different form in American Literature, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, and the New England Quarter I y--Long goes beyond the work of Bewley, Edel, Buitenhuis, and others. In "The Earlier James: The Question of Hawthorne," chapter 1, Long compares Hawthorne's fiction with that of Melville and James, comments on James's reservations about Hawthorne's realism, and discusses critical interpretations of the Hawthorne-James relationship. During this period, as James assimilated elements of romanticism and realism, the Hawthorne influence was the "most dramatic and revealing" (p. 12). Long finds that in the fiction through The Boston i ans the influence appears most notably In adaptations of Hawthorne's gardens and motifs and particularly in versions of the archetypal figures. In "James's Apprenticeship: The Hawthorne Aspect," chapter 2, Long explains that Eliot and Edel found few Influences on the stories and Buitenhuis discovered only six stories with marked or slight Influences. Long contends, however, that definite signs of the legacy appear in "at least twelve of twenty-seven tales" (p. 36). "The Story of a Year," James's first signed story, begins in a Hawthornean manner and includes a Hawthorne theme; two other early stories contain names from the fiction; and "The Story of a Masterpiece" is traced to "The Prophetic Pictures." In the years 1870-75, the best stories. Including "A Passionate Pilgrim," "The Madonna of the Future," and "The Last of the Valeril," contain James's versions of such romantic archetypes as the "egotist-violater," "intellectual investigator," and "romance villain," refashioned versions of Hilda, Westervelt, and Donate I I o, and also variations on motifs of the alienated artist and the innocent American abroad. Discussions of these points are detailed, clear, and judicious. So, too, are the essays on Roderick Hudson, chapter 3, The Europeans and "Daisy Mi I 1er," chapter 4, and Hawthorne, chapter 5. Long describes in chapter 3 influences of Turgenev and others, provides helpful biographical materials, and proves to be en I ightening i η comparisons of the two wr iters Ι η Rome, their friends and Impressions. Drawing upon familiar situations and motifs in The Marble Faun, James created 1 η Roderick Hudson sharply focused and realistic characters involved In an unredeemed fall. As these realistic adaptations of romantic materials mark a high point, a waning of the influence appears i η The Europeans and "Da I sy MI I 1er." The I egacy rema Ins s Igη If icant, Long expl a ins, for James drew upon the Arcadian materials of The Blithedale Romance for a satirical pastoral In The Europeans and created in "Daisy Miller" a heroine traceable to Hilda, Hawthorne-1 ike gardens, and a realistic Rome with romantic overtones. Social observations and satiric portrayals ¡n these works Illustrate James's growing Independence and mastery. Long's comments on Hawthorne provide the expected background and also evaluations of James's views of Hawthorne as provincial and as a "nontragical Ironist" (p. 76). The writer's frequently noted condescension toward "'poor Hawthorne'" (p. 68), criticians of Hawthorne's alleged shortcomings, the continual refusal to admit his own indebtedness to Hawthorne, and later changes in his views of Hawthorne are careful Iy examined with reference to novels, the notebooks, New England circumstances, and similar matters. Discussions of several novels—most notably Roderick Hudson, considered above, Washington Sqaure, chapter 6, The Portrait of a Lady, chapter 7, and The Bostonians, chapter 8—begin with several pages on influences, respectively, of Turgenev, Balzac, George Eliot, and on conditions and experiences in Boston. Although these Influences were undoubtedly important during James's formative period, their relevance to the topic is not adequately clarified. The practice is to consider these influences and then Hawthorne's but to leave the relationships somewhat vague or to express them primarily in...

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