(De)Facing Aestheticism in The Outcry

Essay Excerpt

"Writing to Edith Wharton on 19 November 1911, Henry James responds to a now-lost letter in which Wharton had apparently praised his recent novel The Outcry, but had also encouraged him to attempt another novel in the mode of The Golden Bowl. He writes: ‘You speak at your ease, chère Madame, of the interminable & formidable job of my producing à mon âge another Golden Bowl—the most arduous & thankless task I ever set myself. However, on all that il y aurait bien des choses à dire; & meanwhile, I blush to say, the Outcry is on its way to a fifth Edition (in these few weeks) whereas it has taken the poor old G.B. 8 or 9 years to get even into a third … The vague verbosity of the Oxus-flood (beau nom!) [of The Golden Bowl] terrifies me—sates me; whereas the steel structure of the other form makes every parcelle a weighed & related value. Moreover nobody is really doing (or, ce me semble, as I look about, can do) Outcries, while all the world is doing G.B.’s—& vous même, chère Madame, tout le premier: which gives you really the cat out of the bag. My vanity forbids me (instead of the more sweetly consecrating it) a form in which you run me so close.’ This extraordinary letter is memorable not only for James’s stunning assertion that ‘all the world is doing G.B.’s’ (rather a disconcerting prospect even for lovers of late James) but for its confidence that his professional future lay in producing more works like The Outcry."