New-York tribune., 1901-02-09
VAMPIRES.
AsroRY ABOUT THEM BY HENRY JAMES


,rpst himself again to the train of speculation
Ga novpsrf,,llv exploited in that eerie narrative
u carried him for the moment, away from the
,r,,,,.l,,,as which have too often engrossed him.
ana enabled him 10 breathe the spiritual airs OF
creative imagination. In the following summer
came .'The Awkward Age" an anti-climax' IL
,D.r tbere was one The Soft Side" book OF
short stories published last September. suggest
es that the impulse which gave us THE Turn OF
the Screw" had had its day. had been sacriliceu
70 the authors prediction for things OF SUD
lime inconsequence. But Mr.. James has All the
tiuoe been turning over in his mind the thoughts
which had yielded such good fruits In the mas
,erniece mentioned above. and in The Sacred
Fount" ne returns to the treatment OF them Win
renewed interest In the interval, however, ne
has had leisure 10 give his ideas a new twist
the kind Of twist alas that his peculiar foioles
as a writer Of fiction might have warned US TO
exnect He deals as he dealt then, with conoi-
,ions bordering on the supernatural But Where
ne was imaginative he is now as innocent OF
that quality as It would seem possible for a DAP
bler in esoteric mysteries 20 be. Where ne
thrilled us in The Turn of the Screw with
convincing sense Of an unreal presence he now
clothes his vampires in evening dress; he puts
them. with their victims. through the deoorous
paces suited 70 an English drawing ROOM ana
where he might have made them shapes OF drea7
he leaves them figures of fun.
His vampires are a man and woman the
latter married. the former a bachelor. She is
somewhere in the forties. IL not further up the
hin and she was born plain" He is a hand
some man. still in his prime; he was born stupid
Grace BrissendCn, the woman. marries man
much younger than herself, and by some subtle
Y,rocess unloads her years and disabilities upon
him She wakes young, beautiful and clever
while poor Briss" takes on decrepitude or MIND
and body grows old, bowed, listless ana pa
thetic Gilbert Long the dull Adonis borrows
no physical charms from the lovely Mrs. server,
who is his supposititious providenoe-he does
not need to-but she is almost drained OF ihtel-
lectual brHancy that he may shine Respondent
q nararon of eloquence. The sacred fount is
hut what is il? When you have identihed the
victims of the two vampires you have, so to say,
given a local habtation and name TO each un-
holy Incubus Guy Brissenden. sacrificing him
SELF that his wife may be aggrandized, stands
forth as an image Of goodness. weakness, gener-
ositv helplessness, what YOU will. May Server
may be called. like him, a martyr. But here we
are only on the outskirts Of the situation. How
do they do Il? Why do they do il? For il is
significant that there is 10 thought in this book
Of the malignant and obscene vampire Of the
ancient bestiaries but a deliberate borrowing,
deliberate lending. II is compact A definite
game Of give and take goes forward Nothing
is held back The gift is Of a whole intelli-
gence, il involves almost complete exchange Of
personalities. What more exciting theme could
a novelist desire? With THE Turn of the
Screw" in mind It seems as il Mr.. James must
certainly rise 10 his opportunity and produce
great book. But he bids 10 Barmecide's
feast. If he had tried TO tell US the secret OF
the sacred fount and had failed he could have
been forgiven. He does not even try.
The thing he does try for is welnigh unbe-
lievable in it's irrelevance. The man into whose
hands he puts the unfolding OF his story goes
down 10 Newmarch, a great English country
house for the week end. On the way down he
travels with Grace Brissenden and Gilbert Long,
marvels at the regeneration Of the one the in
tellectual effiorescence of the other and vaguely
suspects that something unprecedented has hap
pened to both. Forthwith 10 the extent OF
some three hundred pages, he is exhibited not
as seeking a solution OF their bewildering i'm
provement, but as frantically endeavoring 10
identify the individual by whose loss OF the
pair has been enriched! That Brissenden is his
wifes salvation is taken for granted. But is
Gilbert Long indebted TO Lady John TO May
Server? That is the question which drives the
man half mad He talks with Mrs. Brissenden.
Unconscious Of her own significance in the mind
Of her interlocutor she becomes deeply interest
ed in applying the theory to Long and declares
for May Server the probable source of the
miraculous change he has experienced. But at
the end she is terrified lest her own secret es-
cape her and she withdraws from the discus
sion. declaring that the whole business is alb
surd. and that her analytical friend is simply
crazy. He is not altogether bafled. One feels
as the tale ends that he sticks 10 his conviction
IT.
reader however, is bafied. horribly. and won
ders why Mr, James has taken so much trouble
10 land him - an impaSsc. Mr.. James would
say. perhaps, that he never intended to land the
reader anywhere else; that all he cared 10 do
was 10 exhibit the analytical mind-whieh is TO
say, the Jamesian mind-in operation around a
problem having naught 70 do with anything
queer as an exchange Of individualities. having
no spiritual mystery whatever. His problem is
simply Of fat fragrant and even somewhat
vulgar curiosity about triies. Then why, We
are inclined 10 ask. call this book The Sacred
Fount" as though the fount were the thing
which had caused the book 70 be written?
What is IL 10 US that May Server was or was
not the particular person who helped Gilbert
Long 10 be brilliant? The thing worth knowing
is the manner Of her helping him. We wonder
II Mar. James will not wake up some fine day
and. after rereading Of this novel, slap his
forehead and eNclaim with dismay; Goodness!
forgot to say anything about the fount," II is
more probable. though that he viii smile COM
miseratingly over the absurdty OF those readers
who do not appreciate he does. the value OF
exercise IN the juggling Of inductive proc
esses. the subject matter around which the proc
esses play being OF less than secondary impor-
tsnce. AT pause in the analysis when every
thing promises 10 develop in accordance with