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.
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“However, Nick acted as much as possible under the circumstances, and that was rectifying”
— Henry James
“Her character was simply to hold you by the particular spell;any other--the good nature of home, the relation of her mother, her friends, her lovers, her debts, the practice of virtues, or industries, or vices--was not worth speaking of. These things were the fictions and shadows, the representation was the deep substance.””
— Henry James
“He had none of that wish to appear deep which is at the bottom of most forms of fatuity; he was perfectly willing to pass for decently superficial; he only aspired to be continuous. When you were not suitably shallow this presented difficulties; but he would have assented to the proposition that you must be as suitable as you can and that a high use of subtlety is in consuming the smoke of your inner fire. THE FIRE WAS THE GREAT THING, NOT THE CHIMNEY.””
— Henry James
“...But we've so befogged and befouled the whole question of liberty, of spontaneity, of good humour, and inclination, and enjoyment, that there's nothing that makes people stare so as to see on natural.””
— Henry James
“...that's the delightful thing about art, that there's always more to learn and more to do;it grows bigger the more one uses it and meets more questions the more they come up...””
— Henry James
“There is life and life, and as waste is only life sacrificed and thereby prevented from "counting," I delight in a deep breathing economy and an organic form.””
— Henry James
