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kyokroon's review against another edition
4.0
This is my first Henry James’s novel and I must say it was really good and I loved it! For me, especially the first 150-200 pages were really good! That might have something to do with the fact that for the most part the novel is situated in Rome and those pages reflect on its beauty, which is something I as a Classics student of course absolutely adore.
I did like the characters, even though I think they might have suffered a little by the fact that James was more invested in creating characters befitting his arch than creating completely believable characters. At the same time, the novel heavily relies on the characters and the story is invested in the interpersonal relations that arise between all characters. While this may seem contradictory, my point is mostly that the characters at times become somewhat archetypical for the general arch of the story.
One of the things that struck me about the book is how it makes you think about artists and the relation between art and money. I always like books that interact with aesthetic movements or that interact with art and culture themselves and I really thought this was a great example and the focus on artists and their relation with money really added something extra!
I’d definitely recommend this book especially to those who are interested in books about/around the aesthetic movement or if you want to read some Henry James of course!
Happy reading!
I did like the characters, even though I think they might have suffered a little by the fact that James was more invested in creating characters befitting his arch than creating completely believable characters. At the same time, the novel heavily relies on the characters and the story is invested in the interpersonal relations that arise between all characters. While this may seem contradictory, my point is mostly that the characters at times become somewhat archetypical for the general arch of the story.
One of the things that struck me about the book is how it makes you think about artists and the relation between art and money. I always like books that interact with aesthetic movements or that interact with art and culture themselves and I really thought this was a great example and the focus on artists and their relation with money really added something extra!
I’d definitely recommend this book especially to those who are interested in books about/around the aesthetic movement or if you want to read some Henry James of course!
Happy reading!
wmhenrymorris's review against another edition
Fascinating with some amazing passages of beauty and insight, but some of the characters are just a little too flat.
gh7's review against another edition
4.0
At a certain point I couldn’t help wondering if Henry James hadn’t used the two main characters in this novel to have a detailed and protracted argument with himself. Rowland might be seen as HJ in his social guise and Roderick a mischievous projection of his precocious genius. You could describe both characters as half baked. Roderick, somewhat of a romantic cliché, has the talent but no money; Rowland has the money but no talent. An alliance is formed. Rowland offers to become the young provincial sculptor’s patron and take him to Rome. Before leaving Rowland meets Roderick’s fiancé and falls in love with her. Roderick has the girl but doesn’t really want her; Rowland doesn’t have the girl but wants her. This isn’t going to end up well!
At another point the character of Roderick appeared like an eerily prophetic portrait of Scott Fitzgerald, the man who has been gifted with genius but isn’t responsible or strong enough to marshal it and who falls in love with a somewhat self-centred beauty queen who will inevitably provide further obstacles to his artistic ambition.
At times I felt there were things in this novel James probably wasn’t conscious of putting in there. Emotionally Rowland lays down relentless laws for himself and strictly abides by them; James, as author, appears to sanction many of these laws. Rowland doesn’t allow himself to feel anything that isn’t self-effacingly chivalrous, that doesn’t conform with social propriety. I couldn’t help wondering to what extent James was aware of the darker illicit currents in Rowland’s nature. He could have been a fantastic villain. Perhaps he was a fantastic villain. HJ never alludes to any such currents; he clearly admires Rowland more than he does Roderick. Rowland is a type that barely any longer exists in our century. The sixties probably put an end to his ilk. Someone who limits himself to nothing but rationally judicious thoughts and feelings; who never raises his voice. Probably the notion that HJ was a kind of celibate gay finds a lot of ammunition in his portrait of Rowland. His admiration for Roderick is a lot more convincing than his admiration for Roderick’s girlfriend. His self-denial in relation to the girl perhaps more of a smokescreen than a noble rectitude of character.
At the same time it’s a huge shame authors of modern romance fiction don’t have an inner Rowland to curb the saccharine nonsense they write about romantic love.
For a first novel this is a hugely impressive achievement. It can be a bit long-winded with the sense of the same scene being played out several times but James’ facility with stunning sentence writing gets him off the hook time and time again. He can make even a rather banal observation or idea sound the height of wisdom and eloquence with the beautiful highly mannered craftsmanship of his prose. It’s been a treat to reacquaint myself with HJ and I’m looking forward to the next date.
The wonderful portrait of HJ by John Singer Sargent
At another point the character of Roderick appeared like an eerily prophetic portrait of Scott Fitzgerald, the man who has been gifted with genius but isn’t responsible or strong enough to marshal it and who falls in love with a somewhat self-centred beauty queen who will inevitably provide further obstacles to his artistic ambition.
At times I felt there were things in this novel James probably wasn’t conscious of putting in there. Emotionally Rowland lays down relentless laws for himself and strictly abides by them; James, as author, appears to sanction many of these laws. Rowland doesn’t allow himself to feel anything that isn’t self-effacingly chivalrous, that doesn’t conform with social propriety. I couldn’t help wondering to what extent James was aware of the darker illicit currents in Rowland’s nature. He could have been a fantastic villain. Perhaps he was a fantastic villain. HJ never alludes to any such currents; he clearly admires Rowland more than he does Roderick. Rowland is a type that barely any longer exists in our century. The sixties probably put an end to his ilk. Someone who limits himself to nothing but rationally judicious thoughts and feelings; who never raises his voice. Probably the notion that HJ was a kind of celibate gay finds a lot of ammunition in his portrait of Rowland. His admiration for Roderick is a lot more convincing than his admiration for Roderick’s girlfriend. His self-denial in relation to the girl perhaps more of a smokescreen than a noble rectitude of character.
At the same time it’s a huge shame authors of modern romance fiction don’t have an inner Rowland to curb the saccharine nonsense they write about romantic love.
For a first novel this is a hugely impressive achievement. It can be a bit long-winded with the sense of the same scene being played out several times but James’ facility with stunning sentence writing gets him off the hook time and time again. He can make even a rather banal observation or idea sound the height of wisdom and eloquence with the beautiful highly mannered craftsmanship of his prose. It’s been a treat to reacquaint myself with HJ and I’m looking forward to the next date.
The wonderful portrait of HJ by John Singer Sargent
msand3's review against another edition
4.0
What begins as the Classic Bromance transforms into a Love Quadrangle, with Roderick being the embodiment of Romanticism that James loves to critique. Although this seems to be another in a long line of James' favorite theme (the innocent/wild/naive American abroad), we have to understand that this was the *first* such example in James' career, and it's heads-and-tails above Watch and Ward, while not quite up to the swirling lyrical quality of his later work. (Even James himself admits this in his preface to the New York Edition.) In that sense, the central theme of the novel (or one of them, at least) mirrors that of James' own struggle at this time: how can the artist transform the limitless possibilities of his vision into a disciplined and structured work that is ultimately a product for consumption by those who lack the artist's genius? As with the Ouroboros-styled love quadrangle presented in the novel, there doesn't appear to be a satisfactory answer to this question. Indeed, we have four artists (a different type of quadrangle) whose "types" seem doomed to failure: the Romantic Hudson, cynical Gloriani, the unabashed follower Singleton, and the impotent Rowland (artistically and, perhaps, romantically?). Without giving away too much of the plot, perhaps James *does* suggest an answer in the sense that Gloriani's cynicism ends up being the closest to describing the artist's reality--both in terms of his work and his love life.
abbitroke's review against another edition
4.0
an interesting character study and exploration of the themes of art and beauty - an easy read but arguably lacking in plot in some parts
sophronisba's review against another edition
3.0
Henry James's first novel. Not up to the level of his best work, as is to be expected, but still interesting.
sarahjsnider's review against another edition
5.0
The sentences are not as quite as involved or virtuostic as they became later in the author's career, so this positively chugs along. I was looking for an escape from current events, but I kept considering how many resources have been devoted to male talents who look the part and how many more deserving ones have been overlooked.
rubygranger's review against another edition
1.0
This is the first American book written between 1850 and 1950 which I decidedly did not like. It does not succumb to a typically "American" style of writing, and is instead more European (which maybe makes sense because it's set in Italy). The narrator is highly observational, and describes his observations in great detail. But, rather than showing us what they look like, he tells us -- and this quickly got tiresome. I just really did not enjoy reading it.
It's similar to The Picture of Dorian Gray in some ways (which makes sense because they were friends), but, to me, it just read like a very bad version of Wilde's masterpiece.
It's similar to The Picture of Dorian Gray in some ways (which makes sense because they were friends), but, to me, it just read like a very bad version of Wilde's masterpiece.