The Beast's Storied End

The best readings of James's "The Beast in the Jungle"—by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Leo Bersani—regret its ending; these very different accounts agree that James there merges with his character. Exploring free indirect style, prospopoeia, and apostrophe, this essay examines two series of "faces" in the text—one figuring knowledge acknowledged or evaded, the other performing linguistic acts of address. The often incoherent anatomies to which their intercalation gives birth signals the complexity of voice and knowledge in James's tale. Reconsidering the story's end, the essay also reflects on vicariousness, voice, and knowledge in Sedgwick's epochal, field-founding essay.