The London Encounter in "Daisy Miller": James and the Henley Circle

초록

This article examines how the critics of London: A Conservative Weekly Journal, especially its editor W. E. Henley, influenced James's revisions of "Daisy Miller," the implications of which are marked by the omission of the subtitle "a Study" in the New York Edition. Despite their pioneering attention to James's artistry, London problematized his analytical "impartiality" as a lack of "individuality"-while implying that individuality is a masculine, non-American quality that can animate fiction as a work of art. Caught in this double bind, James was motivated to refine his vision of fiction into an object-oriented, non-dissecting study of character.