Page "Henry James" Paragraph 25

Critics have jokingly described three phases in the development of James's prose: " James the First, James the Second, and The Old Pretender " and observers do often group his works of fiction into three periods.

In his apprentice years, culminating with the masterwork The Portrait of a Lady, his style was simple and direct ( by the standards of Victorian magazine writing ) and he experimented widely with forms and methods, generally narrating from a conventionally omniscient point of view.

Plots generally concern romance, except for the three big novels of social commentary that conclude this period.

In the second period, as noted above, he abandoned the serialised novel and from 1890 to about 1897, he wrote short stories and plays.

Finally, in his third and last period he returned to the long, serialised novel.

Beginning in the second period, but most noticeably in the third, he increasingly abandoned direct statement in favour of frequent double negatives, and complex descriptive imagery.

Single paragraphs began to run for page after page, in which an initial noun would be succeeded by pronouns surrounded by clouds of adjectives and prepositional clauses, far from their original referents, and verbs would be deferred and then preceded by a series of adverbs.

The overall effect could be a vivid evocation of a scene as perceived by a sensitive observer.

In its intense focus on the consciousness of his major characters, James's later work foreshadows extensive developments in 20th century fiction.

Indeed, he might have influenced stream-of-consciousness writers such as Virginia Woolf, who not only read some of his novels but also wrote essays about them.

Then and later many readers find the late style difficult and unnecessary ; his friend Edith Wharton, who admired him greatly, said that there were passages in his work that were all but incomprehensible.

H. G.

Wells harshly portrayed James as a hippopotamus laboriously attempting to pick up a pea that has got into a corner of its cage.

Some critics have claimed that the more elaborate manner was a result of James taking up the practice of dictating to a secretary.

He was afflicted with a stutter and compensated by speaking slowly and deliberately.

The late style does become more difficult in the years when he dictates, but James also was able to revise typewritten drafts more extensively, and his few surviving drafts show that the later works are more heavily revised and redrafted.

In some cases this leads critics to prefer the earlier, unrevised versions of some works because the older style is thought to be closer to the original conception and spirit of the work, Daisy Miller being a case in point: most of the current reprints of this novel contain the unrevised text.

On the other hand, the late revision of the early novel The Portrait of a Lady is generally much preferred to the first edition, even by those who dislike the late style, because of the power of the imagery and the depth of characterisation, while his shorter late fiction, such as The Turn of the Screw, is considered highly accessible and remains popular with readers.