I would give all I possess to get out of myself; but somehow, at the end, I find myself so vastly more interesting than nine tenths of the people I meet.



Henry James has always been a favorite of mine, a huge influence on my own writing, thinking, and teaching, along with Proust, of course. Somehow at the tail end of 2022, after reading his first (and yawn-able, by Jamesian standards) novel Watch and Ward, I set myself the task of re-reading all of his novels in 2023—a project that will likely take me into 2024, given how immense and challenging some of his middle and late works are.



It’s no wonder than James himself disowned the melodramatic, almost soap opera Watch and Ward later in life, preferring instead to call Roderick Hudson his first novel. But for those familiar with his major work, Watch and Ward is still a critical text to examine, if only as it contains the germs of the languorous and often tedious prose for which James is known and celebrated. Still, Watch and Ward is all show and no tell; by contrast, Roderick Hudson sees James moving more into his own zone, getting more comfortable with contrasting lengthy scenes of figural narrative or “thought consciousness”—I prefer this term to stream-of-consciousness, as James pre-figures but rarely makes use of this technique—with scenes of dialogic exchange that foreshadow his later command of the inscrutability of others, the ambiguities of language, and the impossibility all humans share when it comes to knowing what others truly mean by the words they use.



Roderick Hudson also has James’s closeted homoerotic undertones embedded in it (buried in it?), far more so than Watch and Ward, but also far more cloaked beneath heteronormative romantic subplots. Here, too, we begin to see James tackle the theme that would preoccupy much of his fiction: Americans abroad; the feelings of alienation due to not being in one’s native land; how one is changed by new countries, new sensory perceptions (such as art, society, culture), and also how these are changed by the often hapless and clueless Americans in his fictions. Roderick Hudson, as a character, is James’s first artist figure, and his moodiness, his egotism, and his sometimes narcissistic struggles with others are treated later in more seasoned ways by James—but this is the root of it all. 



While the titular character, Roderick is hardly the star; instead, he is the focal point around which the other characters revolve, with Rowland Mallet being the most interesting and yet the most incomprehensible character in the entire novel, largely when it comes to his morality, his intentions, his emotions, and his culpability. As is typical, James presents us with flawed characters, never asking us to like them or even really empathize with them, yet we’re still carried along, as fellow humans, realizing how carefully James takes his time in setting the stage for the action to follow suit. Christina Light is also a fascinating character as well, and it’s no wonder that James revisits her in a later novel: her struggles with status, marriage, and gender constraints prefigure, in some ways, the main concerns in The Portrait of a Lady (among many other novels and tales), and she is far more developed and three-dimensional than Nora from Watch and Ward, who is no more than a caricature of sorts.



As I said, it will likely take me into 2024 to re-read James’s novels in order, but I look forward to this little project of mine. Perhaps after that I’ll turn to reading his tales and novellas: it’s been years since I read some of these novels and tales, while for others it’s been less than that. If anything, I look forward to seeing his style grow, flourish, and get progressively more grandiose as I trek through these works chronologically. 



On to The American… ( )

Henry James's first novel. Not up to the level of his best work, as is to be expected, but still interesting. ( )

Really enjoyed this book....much beyond what i thought when i started it. A bit dense here and there, and a fair number of coincidental meetings throughout that keep me from going above 4 stars, but certainly worth the 4 to me. Basically a story about art, beauty, passion, and morals, all stirred up into a big late 1880's pot....Americans in Italy mostly, working at creating art using all that Rome and other European spots have for inspiration. A wealthy Rowland Mallet takes potential young sculptor Roderick Hudson to Rome and willingly acts as his patron in hopes of releasing his artistic genius. Complications arise in the form of a destructive muse that threatens Hudson's engagement......Rowland acts always the gentleman, to a fault, and allows Hudson to become a monster of sorts.....but never has the chutzpah to stand up and demand accountability, always willing to chalk it up to his 'genius'. Not a whole lot happens, but the entire story, seen mostly through Rowland's eyes, gets more and more complex, and i found myself desperately hoping for several scenarios to play out, and i needed to keep reading to see if they would. Much descriptive text extolling the beauty of Rome in the winter and all it has to offer in the way of spectacular classic art, as well as much insight into what is art and beauty.....and how do they come together and can they co-exist in the hearts, minds and souls of artists. And when i realized that this was Henry James' first novel, I was impressed with the depth and scope of his insight into all of these topics. Nicely done..... ( )

Henry James's first novel. Not up to the level of his best work, as is to be expected, but still interesting. ( )

Very indirect plot spoilers here.

This is not-quite-James. It's slow to get started - not slow the way his other novels are slow, but sloooooooooow - with long descriptions of peoples' appearances that are neither interesting nor insightful etc etc... Chapter III through the first half of XI is great, but someone has seemingly replaced a Jamesian ending with one straight out of a gothic horror novel. The final few chapters are somehow both completely superfluous (page after page of 'the alps stood out against the sun-lit sky like lowering monsters') and insufficient (the characters sit around... and somehow, someway, one of them decides that 'life is no longer worth living'. ) They aren't direct quotes, James is too good a writer for that, but the sentiment is about right.
That said, James got it right with his very next novel, and it stayed right more or less to the end of his life, and you get hints of that here. But only recommended for people who care about getting the early hints; otherwise, start with The American. ( )