I have always found Henry James to be a difficult writer to read. I have often tried but, honestly , apart from the Turn of the Screw, which is riveting, and Daisy Miller, I have never managed to get past any of his prologues. This is probably due to the fact that, being an interpreter myself, the circumlocutionary complications of his syntax put me in mind of how excruciating it would be to try to translate anyone who spoke like him at a conference. So, I find this account by Edith Wharton, in her memoir, A Backward Glance, describing how James asked for directions from a motor car very convincing.
“While I was hesitating, and peering out into the darkness, James spied an ancient doddering man who had stopped in the rain to gaze at us. ‘Wait a moment, my dear — I’ll ask him where we are’; and leaning out he signalled to the spectator. ‘My good man, if you’ll be good enough to come here, please; a little nearer — so,’ and as the old man came up: ‘My friend, to put it to you in two words, this lady and I have just arrived here from Slough; that is to say, to be more strictly accurate, we have recently passed through Slough on our way here, having actually motored to Windsor from Rye, which was our point of departure; and the darkness having overtaken us, we should be much obliged if you would tell us where we now are in relation, say, to the High Street, which, as you of course know, leads to the Castle, after leaving on the left hand the turn down to the railway station.’
I was not surprised to have this extraordinary appeal met by silence, and a dazed expression on the old wrinkled face at the window; nor to have James go on: ‘In short’ (his invariable prelude to a fresh series of explanatory ramifications), ‘in short, my good man, what I want to put to you in a word is this: supposing we have already (as I have reason to think we have) driven past the turn down to the railway station (which, in that case, by the way, would probably not have been on our left hand, but on our right), where are we now in relation to…’
‘Oh, please,’ I interrupted, feeling myself utterly unable to sit through another parenthesis, ‘do ask him where the King’s Road is.’
‘Ah -?’ The King’s Road? Just so! Quite right! Can you, as a matter of fact, my good man, tell us where, in relation to our present position, the King’s Road exactly is?’
‘Ye’re in it,’ said the aged face at the window.”
…I started reading Portrait of a Lady but gave up very early into the book, then read a summary
Curse those circumlocutions!🤬
Washington Square is very moving. As for Portrait, I have a high tolerance to “not understanding” and I trudged on till meaning seemed to appear. I tried to read “The Jolly Corner” translated in Spanish, but was put off by the circumlocutions :)))