[EDGAR] HENRY JAMES AND HIS METHOD 227 



with Jamesian situations. Rosanna Gaw has been the means of having 

 Graham Fielder recalled from Europe to America in order to be present 

 at the death-bed of his uncle Betterman, who in a conciliatory mood 

 has determined to nominate his nephew to the inheritance of his great 

 wealth. Graham, or Gray as his friends prefer to call him, arrives in 

 the full tide of the Newport season, and is speedily metamorphosed 

 from an impecunious heir of the ages in Europe to an immensely 

 propertied man in America. He is hopelessly incompetent in the 

 matter of money, and places himself unreservedly in the hands of an 

 old friend of his boyhood, Horton or Haughty Vint, who stealthily 

 succeeds in transferring Gray's fortune to himself. The important 

 women are three: Rosanna Gaw, wealthy but honest (the adversative 

 word counts for much in the story), and sincerely Gray's friend with 

 future transcendent possibilities implied; Cecilia (Cissy) Foy, beauti- 

 ful and brilliantly unreliable, with tender inclinations for Haughty but 

 mercenary designs on Gray; and Mrs. Bradham or "Gussy," who 

 selfishly plays her own game while fanning Gray's attraction for 

 Cissy her fascinating protégée. The story would have ended with the 

 bankrupt Gray finding his happiness under conditions not the least 

 mercenary with the steadfast Rosanna, and then presumably the pair 

 would have settled down somewhere within sight or reach of the 

 Pitti Palace. Such in baldest outline is the projected story with all 

 its latent possibilities of crude and even melodramatic treatment. 

 Its expansion by the hand of James would have been quite other, his 

 votaries know. 



What interests one in the notes is the writer's immense enthusiasm 

 for his theme, and his sense of the finer values that are latent within 

 it. As a precaution let me observe that his imagination does not 

 kindle from the vulgar outlines of such a plot as I have with intentional 

 crudity presented. He seems first to have adumbrated in his mind 

 two or three central figures who are capable of taking defined shape 

 and individual accent as they themselves project the situations that 

 reveal them. Probably for the purposes of the present story James 

 had chosen to represent a Europeanized American, in his original con- 

 ception not markedly different from the multitude we encounter in 

 the novels, but determined in a new direction by the special circum- 

 stance of late inherited wealth and consequent transplantation into a 

 new environment. Thus definitely launched Graham Fielder creates 

 by the logic of his character a new world, and it is a keen enjoyment 

 for us to observe the intelligently exploring way in which this necessita- 

 ted cosmos develops in the author's mind. 



' Having determined the general direction of his plot the author 

 casts about for the names which shall be the supremely best in their 



