November 23, 2007
making sense of this strange and brilliant life
On January 23, 1895, after the withdrawal of his Guy Domville to make way for a new play by Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Henry James seemed to be determined that his failure in public would result in the creation of immortal work. He confided to his notebook: “I take up my old pen again––the pen of all my old unforgettable efforts and sacred struggles. To myself––today––I need say no more. Large & full & high the future still opens. It is now indeed that I may do the work of my life. And I will.”In The Mature Master, the second volume of his biography of James––the first, The Young Master, appeared in 1996––Sheldon M. Novick notes what happened next in James’s notebooks. After a gap marked by a set of x’s, James wrote: “I have only to face my problems.” Then, after more x’s, he added: “But all that is of the ineffable—too deep and pure for any utterance. Shrouded in sacred silence let it rest.” Then more x’s. What could James possibly have meant here?
more from Bookforum here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 01:14 PM | Permalink
Comments
what we get here: James was not troubled by his homosexuality. He just felt it important to carefully conceal his tracks. But there seems to be some evidence of his gayness. I will point this out in the next book, which you should make sure to buy.
Posted by: fed lapides | Nov 23, 2007 2:37:56 PM
Am I all alone in not thinking it's very interesting whether Henry James was gay and not terribly forthcoming about it? Here we have the master of renunciation, indirection, of the beautifully and tacitly understood, of the bottomlessly deep, and we're worrying over his comfort level with being out. This is worse than when I was in college and people gathered evidence that Rilke suffered from an ailment causing painful ejaculations -- I can't remember what that theory was supposed to explain, or what lit-crit aims were thereby served. Oh, I get it that if there's a writer as great as James (or Rilke), one can't know enough about him. But if you want to know him but really, you have only to read him. That is all you have to do to know such an artist truly.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Nov 23, 2007 5:53:16 PM
Not alone. I can't count the times this facet of James has not occurred to me.
Posted by: Carlos | Nov 23, 2007 9:58:03 PM
More to the point, though, how cool a writer do you have to be to entice John Sargent to deign to paint your portrait? Something about this cover made me wonder if, perhaps, and sure enough...
Posted by: Carlos | Nov 23, 2007 10:13:00 PM
This reminds me of someone several years ago diagnosing Shakespeare with a sleep disorder via various references to sleep in his writings.
Posted by: beajerry | Nov 24, 2007 12:49:19 AM
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