A Hardy Festschrift

ELT 45 : 2 2002 The links between these late-nineteenth century authors, their correspondences , and their collaborations have been explored in several publications . Bradley hardly mentions any of those. I realise that one has to make selections when one writes a book but somehow I get the impression of not being given the full picture. I should just like to mention Wayne Koestenbaum's Double Talk (1989) which might have been an interesting additional source. Though perhaps somewhat far-fetched in its interpretation, it contains some startling analyses of turn-of-thecentury romance collaboration as homosexual desire and the last chapter starts with James's story, "collaboration," by way of a vignette. In chapters 3 to 6 Bradley delineates the way in which James's fiction reflects his own and society's changing views on homosexuality. He traces the influence of Pater's "gay-inflected essays" in Roderick Hudson (1875) and on Winterbourne, the central male character in Daisy Miller (1878). In chapters 4 and 5 Bradley discusses James's portrayal of Symonds as Ambient in The Author ofBeltraffio ( 1884) and he looks at the new gay aesthetic subculture in The Tragic Muse (1890) and "The Pupil" (1891). Finally, in chapter 6, we are presented with an analysis of James's fiction after the Wilde trials and the way it then reflects a new gay reality. Henry James's Permanent Adolescence is a valuable and well-written contribution to the on-going debate on James's fiction. It relies slightly too much, perhaps, on recent (especially American) studies of James and queer studies: few of his cited sources were published before 1980 and little of it is European. But it does present several insightful analyses of some of James's best-known stories. I can recommend his interpretation of Daisy Miller and "The Pupil." And it usefully uncovers and explicates oblique references to homosexuality which only those who are familiar with Victorian homosexual subculture could have recognized. It should therefore easily and deservedly find its way to the sagging shelves of all Jamesians of whatever camp. Marysa Demoor Clare Hall, Cambrdige A Hardy Festschrift Rosemarie Morgan and Richard Nemesvari, eds. Human Shows: Essays in Honour of Michael Mitigate. New Haven: The Hardy Association Press, 2000. 162 pp. $36.00 220 BOOK REVIEWS THOMAS HARDYS preeminent biographer, editor, and critic, Michael Millgate, has inspired this Festschrift as a tribute to him by some of the leading Hardy scholars of our time. This is a provocative, lively volume that touches on both explored and unexplored facets of Hardy's life, thought, philosophy, and literary associations. The rationale for these essays is set forth in the editors' preface. Hardy's personal writings offer a rather "cooked" picture of reality: Hardy was exceptionally reticent, rarely revealing his more immediate feelings. Hence some of the more unusual approaches taken by the authors of this volume to penetrate that façade: delving into the banalities of his household affairs , meals, beloved pets, and unbeloved servants; poring over old newspaper clippings; considering Hardy in relation to the temperance movement; or probing topics so diverse as, on the one hand, Hardy's use of biblical psalms, and, on the other, his manipulation of sex-role crossovers in his fiction. The result is a volume that provides a wide variety of insights into Hardy's complex personality, and the rich creative context which sustained his genius for over a half century. Human Shows opens with "Bread and Babies," Ralph Elliott's study of Hardy's childless but prosperous domestic life with Emma, then later with Florence. The success of Hardy's literary career afforded the luxury of servants and cooks; however, the paucity of children in these married lives is examined in relation to the material prosperity. Did success and comfort form a callousness and selfishness that was reflected in his actual interactions with children and adults of a lower social status? We see, for example, the possibility of a genuine gap between the social views and values notable in Hardy's writings when compared with his own personal behavior and social practice. In particular, Hardy's ostensible vision of the deleterious effect of poverty and marriage on children...