Real Thing

When a destitute aristocratic couple appears at an illustrator's door, they present themselves as the answer to his prayers: refined, dignified, 'the real thing.' But in the studio, their rigidupper-class mannerisms prove fatal to art. They cannot slouch, gesture, or transform. They are too tragically themselves. Meanwhile, a vulgar little woman with a 'bad mouth' proves to be the perfect subject, capable of becoming anything the artist demands. James weaves a quietly devastating tale about the difference between social reality and artistic truth, between what society calls 'real' and what the imagination requires. The Monarchs are never pathetic enough to mock and never dignified enough to admire. They simply are. And that, James suggests, may be the problem with authenticity itself.