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genuine, yet is expressed in such a conventional way as to make one
realize tha t the two men could not have shared any ultimate mys ter–
ies with one anothe r.
With whom , then , was j ames intimate in this way? Perhaps
with no one, if the lette rs give biography a fa ithful sha ping. With
Grace No rton , who saved a ll of the one hundred sixty le tters he
wrote to he r? His long le tte rs sent to Cambridge gathe r in a gener–
ou s report on hi s soc ial activi ties a nd some times seem des igned
to
titilla te he r with goss ip about her travelin g acqua intances . H e often
expressed hi s literary re fl ecti ons, too, to the intelli ge nt G race. Yet
she seem s to h ave b ee n , like th e ac tress Fa nn y K em bl e o r
Brownin g's fri end , Mrs. Bronson , a registe r of j ames's cul tural
fi deliti es but not a pa rti cipa nt in hi s mos t pri vate fee lin gs .
It is not that he fa il ed to sha re his problems with hi s fri ends.
When he worri ed about the way hi s stori es we re held back by editors
o r tha t hi s novels did not sell , he spoke freely. To eve ryone he con–
fessed hi s anxie ties ove r the fo ray into writin g for the theate r, whi ch
ended with the di sastrou s fa ilure of hi s play,
Guy
Domville,
in 1894.
H e wrote o f the grave shocks of the deaths of fri ends a nd of hi s sister.
Positive ly, now and then to hi s brothe r Willi am or to H owells or
Stevenson , he expressed hi s pe rsonal hope for a pa rti cula r kind of
greatness a nd enuncia ted hi s es the ti c creed , a nd he touched a pro–
found source of endurance when he spoke
to
Grace about hi s feeling
tha t " con sc iou sness is an illimi table powe r." But in all these utter–
a nces there is no hint tha t the vo ice off the page mi ght become other
tha n supremely dispass iona te, self- consciou s, the exqui sitely courte–
ous vo ice of one who respec ts your rese rves a s he expec ts you to
respect hi s.
Perh aps , indeed , it neve r did . It is useless to specul a te just how
j ames a rri ved a t the dec ision tha t he would neve r ma rry, but it
seems to have become a se ttl ed ma tte r in thi s pe riod . H e had a spe–
cial tone o f mock-flirta tiou s teas ing and the pose of a di sappointed
suito r for hi s Pa ris hostess, H enrietta R eubell , but it is clear tha t it is
all in fun. To hi s brothe r he confesses hi s prefe rence for hi s " wifeless,
childl ess, houseless , classless, mothe r- a nd siste r-in -Iawless, horse–
less, cowl ess and u seless ex iste nce . . . spa re a nd lean a nd unheroic,
in the lurid li ght of [William ' s] fires ide, " but " practi cally all [he]
can ma nage." H e warns Mi ss Norton against ma tchmaking on his
behalf- " I shall to a dead ce rta inty never cha nge my free unhoused
conditi on ." Pe rhaps the defi ciency of intimacy in the lette rs is the
