Visions and Revisions: The Past Rewritten

Visions and Revisions: The Past Rewritten by Lyall H. Powers, University of Michigan "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can.' A quarter of a century after TAe Portrait of a Lady was first pubUshed, Henry James turned again to the novel, in 1906, to revise it extensively for the New York Edition of his novels and tales. That revision was a particularly important piece of work; and properly to appreciate the significance of James's alterations and to understand die resultant novel, one must consider carefully the "moment" in which the task was undertaken. The events in James's career, both in his life and in his work, that preceded tiiat task of revision, and also tiiose that foUowed it, are matters of principal concern. Particularly crucial was James's return to America, in August, 1904 (after an absence of two decades), for a visit of almost a year. It is hardly surprising that revision of TAe Portrait would be major: it was not only an early work, but also one that seems always to have held peculiar significance for James himself. His personal involvement in it was especiaUy profound and intense. And he was evidently convinced well before he began tiie actual writing of it that it would be something of real weight—literaUy his "masterpiece"; as early as 2 February 1877 he informs HoweUs that it wiU require "fuU elbow room" (HJL II, 97). But it would remain an "aching fragment" until he found die leisure and die elbow room in Florence in 1880. The novel ran seriaUy from October, 1880, to November, 1881, in Macmillan's Magazine and from November, 1880, to December, 1881, in the Atlantic Monthly. The book came out in London and Boston at the end of 1881, and revisions for that were minor. That edition, slightly retouched, served as die text of die novel for the first "Collected Edition" of James's works, published by Macmillan in November, 1883. The extensive, substantial, and detailed revision was that of 1906, for Scribner's New York Edition of 1907-1909. TAe Portrait was published in 1908 as volumes III and IV. Understandably, major revision of such an important work in the James canon has been the subject of much scholarly and critical attention, beginning with the comments of Theodora Bosanquct, James's last amanuensis, just two years after his deatii.1 Consequently, we know quite clearly and in ample detail what the changes were that James made in die 1881 version of the novel to prepare it for Scribner's and what those revisions achieved. James sharpened die imagistic expression of the narrative; he made concrete and palpable what had been comparatively abstract and vague, and he increased both the dramatic quality of tiie novel and its thematic development. He also altered various images to bring tiiem into conformity with others in order to create extended metaphors, a sustained symbology. He further emphasized tiie romantic quality of his heroine, Isabel Archer, in the early part of her adventure. He refined and strengtiiened the dominance of her point of view in the novel and gave increased attention (necessarily) to the importance of her consciousness. He enhanced die emotional value of Ralph's concern for Isabel. Most obvious, perhaps, is die greatiy strengthened erotic element in the novel (only latent in the early version), particularly as it involves Caspar Goodwood—and Isabel's attitude and response to him. James thus prepared, with augmented dramatic effectiveness and weighted tiiematic emphasis, for the most striking alteration of aU—Caspar Goodwood's kissing Isabel in the closing moments of the novel. AU of this, quite evidently, has particular bearing on Isabel's final decision to return to Rome as the novel ends. The most substantial agreement among tiiose who have studied James's revisions of TAe Portrait is that three features characterize the later version: first, the increased importance given to Isabel's mind— her imagination or inteUect or consciousness—which now dominates die novel; second, die developed erotic element, so salient in Isabel's last encounter with Caspar, third, die enhanced emotional appeal of Ralph Touchett. The first two of these are perfectly...