DOI article:
Milman, Lena: A few notes upon Mr. James
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27806#0078
74 A Few Notes upon Mr. James
there are certain melodramatic situations, of which they never
tire ; and a writer who prefers to tell of subtle emotions, of
bloodless situations, whose reputation, moreover, does not chiefly
rest upon one of those respectable monuments of British in-
dustry, novels in three volumes, will never see his works stacked
high upon the bookstalls. If, like Mr. James, he is further
hampered by a tender literary conscience, which makes him
reverent and temperate in the use of words, which hinders him
from writing even daintily of things foul, it will go even harder
with him, since he cannot hope for a place on that index which has
made so many reputations in the marring.
“ La qualite la plus rare che% la feinme,” says Balzac, “ c'est tine
certaine gaiete qui n'altere point la tendresse,” and surely the rarity
may be predicated of other than women, of whole communities
indeed. To steer between the Scylla of flippancy on the one
hand, and the Charybdis of sentimentality on the other, is given
to but few. It is such a perfection of taste, as one would
expect an ancient civilization to produce ; and, lo ! an example
of it, a very apostle of form, comes to us over the Atlantic,
beyond whose wave the forefathers of his race sought immunity
from form, civil and religious.
II
It is as difficult to express the charm of an individual style in
words other than the author’s own as to convey that of music
without a snatch of illustrative melody ; and this is especially true
of a style which, like that of Mr. James, expresses an exquisite
sense of fitness rather than a musical ear. It is not that his
epigram is ever discordant, but rather that his system of short,
closed sentences does not lend itself to flowing cadence.
He
there are certain melodramatic situations, of which they never
tire ; and a writer who prefers to tell of subtle emotions, of
bloodless situations, whose reputation, moreover, does not chiefly
rest upon one of those respectable monuments of British in-
dustry, novels in three volumes, will never see his works stacked
high upon the bookstalls. If, like Mr. James, he is further
hampered by a tender literary conscience, which makes him
reverent and temperate in the use of words, which hinders him
from writing even daintily of things foul, it will go even harder
with him, since he cannot hope for a place on that index which has
made so many reputations in the marring.
“ La qualite la plus rare che% la feinme,” says Balzac, “ c'est tine
certaine gaiete qui n'altere point la tendresse,” and surely the rarity
may be predicated of other than women, of whole communities
indeed. To steer between the Scylla of flippancy on the one
hand, and the Charybdis of sentimentality on the other, is given
to but few. It is such a perfection of taste, as one would
expect an ancient civilization to produce ; and, lo ! an example
of it, a very apostle of form, comes to us over the Atlantic,
beyond whose wave the forefathers of his race sought immunity
from form, civil and religious.
II
It is as difficult to express the charm of an individual style in
words other than the author’s own as to convey that of music
without a snatch of illustrative melody ; and this is especially true
of a style which, like that of Mr. James, expresses an exquisite
sense of fitness rather than a musical ear. It is not that his
epigram is ever discordant, but rather that his system of short,
closed sentences does not lend itself to flowing cadence.
He