CORRESPONDENCE
JAMESIAN MAnER
SIRS:
I don't feel that Irving Howe's re–
view of my
American HenTY James
(PR, Spring 1957) deserves a direct
reply. He simply didn't allow my text
to interfere with what he wanted to
say. But your readers ought to be told
what sort of hatchet job Howe's was.
A conventional piece of scholarship
in which the works of the Henry
Jameses are examined and a relation
between their meanings and their char–
acteristic images established, is gravely
declared to be destructive of literary
values and critical discriminations; its
author although cunning enough to
conceal the fact (except in one sen–
tence!) is "essentially fanatical"; and,
in this case, the method of the new
criticism has been used to disguise
madness. This, of course, gives Howe
away at once; not even the most in–
nocent would be likely to see the new
criticism in such a book. He !pust be
up to something, and in fact he is.
Before I come to what he is up to,
here are a few instances of his han–
dling of my text. He associates re–
marks made about one novel or group
of novels with another novel or group
of novels; puts aside my explanation
of the relation among the parts of
my book, substitutes his own, and then
scolds me for not supplying any; ta–
citly denies anything in the least prob–
lematic in Henry James, including
those difficulties which his prized "cri–
tical discriminations" have established
(and which provided a starting-point
for my work) ; scolds me for not meas–
uring James's precise intention in draw–
ing on his father's work, and then
denies that he did.
Howe's review provides the evidence
as to why he feels threatened. He is
busy saving a formula which runs:
Society-Political Novel- Artist.
It
isn't really the asserted connection be–
tween the Henry Jameses which
troubles him.
It
is my conclusion that
617
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