Henry James/ Edith Wharton

In "The Art of Fiction," Henry James describes his idea of how fiction should be written and viewed. He first started out by talking about different people's views on fiction, such as the french and then proceeded to quote and go back to the lecture by Besant. James says, "Art lives upon discussion, upon experiment, upon curiousity, upon variety of attempt, upon the exchange of views and the comparison of standpoints; and there is a presumption that those times when no one has anything particular to say about it, and has no reason to give for practice or preference though they may be times of honour, are not times of development-are times, possibly even, a little of dulness."(554) James gives his opinion of art by saying that there is a point in which it has to go through a period of scrutiny. Art is present to be discussed and talked about. Whether or not people agree with this, this is how it is. James then talks about his opinion on fiction. I was not sure what he was trying to get at with this section but this quote that I found kind of sums up what I got out of it. "The only effectual way to lay it to rest is to emphasise the analogy to which I just alluded- to insist on the fact that as the picture is reality, so the novel is history."(555)

When comparing this critical article to Wharton, it was a little hard to find comparison. I took what I got out of James' article, and started looking for things to compare from Wharton. In doing so, I think I missed the whole enjoyment process that usually takes place while reading. Even so, I think that James talks a lot about fiction and how fiction is based somewhat on people's real experiences and histories. I feel as though Lydia (the main character in Souls Belated) had a lot of Edith Wharton in her. In Wharton's little biography in the beginning, it says that she was born in NYC, and was always somewhat of a city girl. In Souls Belated, it is obvious that Lydia is a city girl, and enjoys the city. She even at some point tries to convince Gannett to move to the city. "But I thought- I remember your telling me once that your best work had been done in a crowd - in big cities. Why should you shut yourself up in a desert?"(851). I think that with the idea that James brings up in his essay about fiction being based on reality, Wharton definitely displays this in her writing.