Mark Seltzer is influenced by the latter, and Jane Missner Barstow draws on the deconstructionist theories of Deleuze.Įven so, scholars continue to write about sources, influences, narrative and characterization. There is, also, a plethora of new critical modes, with e.g., the work of Louis Althusser and Frederic Jameson, and the views of Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Foucault. Since the 1970s there has once again been a remarkable increase in James criticism. It is most eloquently discussed by John L. London is central to the novel and expressed so by James in the Preface. Throughout the 1960s politics was the typical theme among critics. Edel disavowed the prevailing thought that James could not have known much about the current political upheaval. He acknowledged all the various influences on James: Balzac, Turgenev, Zola, Flaubert. In 1962 Leon Edel published Henry James: The Middle Years with a chapter, “The Divided Self,” on TPC.

In the 50s and 60s the literature on TPC continued to increase and expand. In addition the 1940s saw the publication of the Notebooks of Henry James, edited by F. In the 1940s critical interest in TPC was given considerable impetus by Daniel Lerner, Oliver Clinton, and, most of all, Lionel Trilling. Many have adopted James’s views on the novel, his themes and intentions, even though so many years had passed between the novel and the commentaries. The Preface to TPC has had a considerable effect on the critics. Blackmur reprinted the Prefaces to the New York Edition in The Art of the Novel. Critical interest quickened in the 1930s. Rebecca West and Pelham Edgar, writing in the early years of the century, praise James’s efforts. Most critics admired the minor characters, particularly Millicent, the vivid Cockney girl. The English reviewers were mainly negative.

Some critics complained that there was no story, whereas others congratulated James for telling a real story at last. Yet in a limited study of contemporary reviews, mixed to be sure, one finds appreciation and recognition for the novel. Reception of The Princess Casamassima was a great disappointment to James.

The Princess Casamassima by Henry James