The Tragic Muse
1890
Henry James turns his legendary precision on the sacred folly of artistic ambition. Nicholas Dormer stands to inherit a safe political career, but standing before a canvas in Paris, he chooses ruin: he will paint instead. Meanwhile, Miriam Rooth scrubs theatre floors between rehearsals, burning to become the greatest actress of her generation. Around them swirls a glittering world of patrons, poseurs, and would-be lovers, all with opinions about what art should cost and who deserves to pay it. Gabriel Nash, the elegant provocateur James modeled on Oscar Wilde, argues that taste is everything and commitment nothing. James watches it all with a smile that never quite becomes a sneer. This is his most purely comic novel, a wide and cheerful panorama that refuses to let either art or society off the hook. The result is a portrait of creative hunger that remains startlingly modern: what we sacrifice for the work, and whether the sacrifice is ever worth it.
