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The Art of Fiction by Henry James Summary

 Henry James one of the greatest American literary minds was an innovator of psychological realism. The essay “The Art of Fiction” was written in reply to a lecture by the Victorian novelist and the historian Walter Besant. Defining the term fiction. Henry James discusses his own principle and technique of novel. According to James Flaubert were the novelist’s novelist and Flaubert especially for novelists like Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, became a fountain head. James disliked like vision of the world that he found in Flaubert, Balzac and Zola.

 “The Art of Fiction” is a reply to Walter Besant’s lecture the Royal Institution on the art of fiction.

Henry James compares the English Novels of olden times with the more recent ones. He says that older ones were expressions of artistic faith. Art liver upon discussion, exchange of views and comparison of standpoints. He says that successful application of any art is a delightful spectacle- but theory too is interesting. The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it attempts to represent life. 

James compares the art of novelists and painters. Their inspiration and process are the same- as well as their success. They may learn from each other and explain and sustain each other. Their cause and honour are the same. He feels that the novelist is less occupied in looking for the truth than the historian. Yet, he has to collect a lot of evidence which makes his work more than merely literary. He has therefore much in common with the philosopher and the painter. This double analogy is a magnificent heritage. 

Henry James then deals with the effect of novels and pictures on the viewers or readers. A picture reveals itself in detail readily whereas a novel keeps the reader engaged for a longer time. The reader prepared to wait for any length of description to reach the end. Sometimes it also tempts to skip a new detail to know the way it ends. The ending of a novel is compared to desserts and ices and it depends on the author. 

Henry James feels that one can easily say that there could be no great character in a commodity so easily and quickly produced. Its value depends on the intensity of impression. But intensity itself depends on the freedom of expression. While reading a novel, one should follow the line of thinking of the author. 

Henry James goes on to say that outlining one’s figures and trying to make them clear by trick of speech or carriage is a bad- method. Describing them at length is worse. Experience is never limited and never complete and a novelist writes out of his our experience. The quality of work however depends on his artistic genius-to guess the unseen from the sea, to trace the implication of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern, etc.

Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions. The most common things are chosen for themes for example, gustave Flaubert’s story about the devotion of a servant- give to a parrot and Ivan Turgeneve’s story about a deaf-and –dumb serf and a lap-dog. And they were successful.

The tastes of readers differ a lot-some like to read about carpenters, some about courtesans some object to Americans and some to Italians , some don’t like quiet subjects, others bustling ones. So, they choose the novel of their taste. Art is essentially selection and artistic considerations mostly have nothing to do with the disagreeable. The same applies to novels too. It is a question of taste and ingenuity.

Next, Henry James deals with the ‘conscious moral purpose’ of the novel. There seems to be a lot of difference between what they talk in conversation and what they talk of in print. There are certain things which is generally agreed not to discuss- not even to mention- before young people. But this, however, is not a symptom of the moral passion. The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer. This is equally time for the novel, picture and statue. Freedom is a splendid privilege and the first lesson of the young novelist is to learn to be worthy of it.

Talents as dissimilar as those of Alexander Dumas and Jane Austen,Charles Dickens and Gustave Flaubert have worked with equal glory.    


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