New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-21
FICTION.
MIR. HENRY JAMES AND HIS LITERARY
METHOD.

THE n AWKWARD IVA AGE Novel BY Henry
Mr.. James is not a great writer. The Awk-
ward Age" in which his method is carried to its
logical conclusion. persuades us that he is not
| always clever Your clever writer is at
least careful to make a point to show you that
his art is being wreaked upon an issue Mr.
James neglects the issue, he is so enamored OF
the art. But there is art and there is art The
kind that presides over the construction of a
locomotive, fitting everything in its place has
something consummate about it which we are
bound TO respect-but II is not the art for which
We look in literature where want beauty,
passion inspiration well as utility. The art
Of THE Awkward Age" is all for utility, and
IL misses even that We perceive what Mr..
James is driving at he is seeking to make
method and style do all that they do to re-
veal the meaning OF his dialogue Like the
CINE builder fitting bolts and rods to their uses,
he fits the right words, as he considers them to
the shades Of meaning involved in the talk Of
his personaSes. But the talk gives head
ache, it does not illuminate. The Is
clear, and brings us to the great defect in the
literary equipment Of Mr. James II the motives
underlying his talk amounted to anything
they would push their way through the in
tricaces Of his method. The imaginative
ception Of The Turn Of the Screw" lent life to
the speech OF the figures In that little master
piece. But the thoughts Of THE Awkward Age"
dry and weak that they leave the
authors method to speak for itself, and it does
so literally with the thin intonations, queer
transitions and opaque pauses Of talking ma
chine that has been wound up" with crank.
This book illustrates the Jamesan method in
perfection, method fatuously pursuing its own
urratural way while the breath OF life the
juices OF humanity. are ruthlessy eliminated.
The tenuous idea ftfuy disclosed in The
Awkward Age" may be briefly summarized II
implcates to begin with, a certain Lady Julia
who has departed from the She had been
loved, and loved in vain, by a certain Mr..
Longdon, when both were young The ady's
daughter, Mrs. Brookenham, inkerits a little Of
her charm, but her granddaughter, Nanda
Brookenham, inherits more and, in fact REIN
carnates, for Mr.. Longdon, his early idol. The
fates decree that, after all. grabbed age and
youth may live together. since age in this case
has genially decided to eschew crabbedness
Nanda is left at the end OF the book with the
prospect of marrying the man who had been
refused by her grandmother. 1t is necessary
however that before he achieves his happiness
Mr. Longdon should have his delicate feelings
shocked again and again by the morbid mod
ernity" characteristic of the people who meet
in Mrs. Brookenham's drawing room to discuss
him. and Nanda and each other that he should
try, by giving Nanda handsome dowry, to get
her married TO Vanderbank, Apollo in whom
he has perfect confidence. and that he should
talk the clock around with all and sundry. IT is
a pretty scheme Enriched and transmogrified
by passion and genius it might have yielded a
touching episode in n brilliant novel Studied
as Mr. James has studied it. through a haze OF
small talk and smaller motives; attennaied to