henry james the portrait of a lady sparknotes

It is as though we ascended a ladder and arrived at another world. To best appreciate his novels and his realism, we must enter into James' special world. What then is James special brand of realism? When we refer to James' realism, we mean James' fidelity to his own material. Instead, he was interested in depicting a class of people who could afford to devote themselves to the refinements of life. He was not concerned with poverty or with the middle class who had to struggle for a living. There is nothing of the ugly, the vulgar, the common, or the pornographic in James. The early definitions stated that the novelist should accurately depict life, and the novel should 'hold up a mirror to life' in other words, the early realist was supposed to make an almost scientific recording of life.īut James was not concerned with all aspects of life. By the early definitions, James is not a realist. Others have suggested that James' world is too narrow and incomplete to warrant classification as a realistic depiction of life.Īctually, James' realism is of a special sort.

Mencken) suggested that James needed a good whiff of the Chicago stockyards so as to get a little life into his novels. Many critics have objected that James does not write about life, that his novels are filled with people whom one would never meet in this world. On the other hand, the most frequent criticism against James has been that he is not realistic enough. Part of this influence has been through the type of realism that he employs. Henry James has had a tremendous influence on the development of the novel.

Henry james the portrait of a lady sparknotes