BIB_ID
431134
Accession number
MA 1617.196
Creator
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
Display Date
London, England, 1878 August 28.
Credit line
Purchased as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke, 1955.
Description
1 item (6 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.3 cm
Notes
This letter is one of ten letters from James to Henley written between March 9, 1878 and June 21, 1879.
The year and specific date of writing identified by Greg W. Zacharias, co-Editor of The Complete Letters of Henry James 1878-1880 cited below.
James does not provide the place of writing however a letter of the same date, published in The Complete Letters of Henry James, cited below, indicates James was in London.
The year and specific date of writing identified by Greg W. Zacharias, co-Editor of The Complete Letters of Henry James 1878-1880 cited below.
James does not provide the place of writing however a letter of the same date, published in The Complete Letters of Henry James, cited below, indicates James was in London.
Provenance
Purchased as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke, 1955.
Summary
Discussing Turgenev and George Meredith; saying "You evidently know your Tourguenieff now & have nothing more to learn. I am extremely glad to hear you mean to write something about him & wish you all success. I don't think he is a 1/4 appreciated, anywhere. My own attempt dates from a good while ago - 1873 - & if it were à refaire I should make a much better thing of it. I remembered after my letter went that "Faust" was included in the 'Scènes', which I am very glad you have got hold of. I wish I had never read any of T., so that I might begin. You are right in saying that he is better than George Meredith. Rather! George Meredith strikes me as a capital example of the sort of writer that Turgenieff is most absolutely opposite to - the unrealists - the literary story-tellers. T. doesn't care a straw for an epigram as a phrase - his inspiration is not a whit literary, but purely and simply human, moral. G.M. cares, I should say, enormously for epigrams & phrases. He's a mannerist, a coquette, in a word : like that pitiful prostitute Victor Cherbuliez. Turgenieff hasn't a grain of coquetry! Such at last are my perceptions. - I meant to have told you that I had found Mr. Stevenson's "Inland Voyage' a singularly charming affair : though he, too, perhaps is a little of a coquette. But the book has a great grace. Thank you for your good opinion of "Daisy Miller", to whom I have written a 'pendant' or counterpart."
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