The Real Thing and Other Tales

by Henry James

The Real Thing (1892) was written at a time when James, distressed by the public's seeming indifference to his novels, courted a wider audience with stage plays, and set himself to ration his prose fiction. One aspect of the life-art antithesis that preoccupied him at this time is illustrated by this story, an engaging sermon of "the perverse and cruel law in virtue of which the real thing could be so much less precious than the unreal." The narrator is a painter who is unable to use a model Victorian couple as subjects because they are, indeed, too authentic. Sir Dominick Ferrand (1892) is a James potboiler—a tale with vague touches of the supernatural, the uncanny. James displays his interest in the theatre with Nona Vincent (1892), in which the author of a play is encouraged in his career by a married woman who acts as his "angel." At the same time, he is intrigued by the young actress who plays the title role, although her professional skills are only moderate. The Chaperon (1891) tells of a girl who volunteers to share the social ostracism of her errant mother. In no other tale does James display so much anger against the hypocritical harshness of late-Victorian London society than he does here, especially as it is manifested in the self-righteous vindictiveness of the heroine's family towards her divorced mother. Greville Fane (1892) tells the story of a writer of best sellers. Vulgar and tasteless, but of a kind disposition, the protagonist writes himself to death to support a lazy ingrate son and a snobbish daughter.

Genres: Short Stories, 19th Century, American, Classics, Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1892

About the author

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."

Reviews

[Julie]

6.5/10

I’ve read only one tale, to date, The Real Thing, and will continue with the others another time.

This is James at his most annoying, and I question why he bothered “sketching” this one out at all. I guess it proves there are times when i just don’t “get” James. Sigh.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five great stories, wonderfully narrated by Jeremy Northam…

The Real Thing – a Major and his wife, down on their luck, approach the artist narrator, asking if they can work as models. Wouldn’t it be great, they suggest, if for once he had ‘the real thing’ to draw from? Full of humour and pathos, with much to say about class.

Greville Fane – the story of a woman author who writes second-rate but popular novels, and uses the money to educate her children, who then grow up to look down on her as vulgar. A sad story beautifully told, about class and literary snobbery.

Four Meetings – the narrator tells of the four times he met Catherine Spencer, a young woman whose dreams of travelling in Europe are thwarted by her own kindness and naivety, and the exploitation of others. Quietly tragic.

Broken Wings – an artist and a novelist who were once attracted meet again after some years. Both achieved early acclaim and still put on a show of being successful. But in reality both are failing. A great depiction of how early success can be as much curse as blessing, but, for once, a happy ending!

Europe – this time three sisters all long to escape their small-town lives and travel to Europe, but only one of them succeeds. A sad story of broken dreams and spinsterhood, and of resignation and mild rebellion, wonderfully told.

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[LiB · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting assortment, but definitely not James‘ best. Certain easier to read than usual, though. Not one trailing half-sentence of emotions too delicate to be directly expressed in the whole collection.

THE REAL THING. Aristocratic couple, after losing their fortune, seek work as artist‘s models. A tiny but tragic examination of class, unusual in that the déclassé couple are presented quite sympathetically, loving, dignified and prepared to make the best of their difficult situation, hardworking in whatever is offered. It’s just that their class background makes them utterly unprepared for normal work and everyone used to work for their living uncomfortable. It makes you worry about what happened to the couple after the end of the story. There’s also a lot packed in about representation and how we are often more comfortable with fiction than reality, but as I’m sure there’s lot of good in-depth analysis elsewhere, I‘ll just stick to saying it made me sad.


SIR DOMINICK FERRAND. Unusually mainstream and straightforward for a Henry James story, which I presume he is lampshading by having the protagonist attempt to water down his own short stories for publication. I don’t think he was comfortable writing this commercially and it shows, although I did like the unusually realistic (for Victorian literature) toddler.

NONA VINCENT. This allusive tale of emotional affairs, love triangles and female self-sacrifice is much more the Henry James I’m familiar with. The young playwright at the centre is so self-centred and arrogant that its hard to see why the women are interested, though.

THE CHAPERONE. Wonderful story about an iron-willed daughter determined to reverse her mother’s social ostracism. As always though, ( cf. The Age Of Innocence ) it’s difficult to understand why the recognition of society was existentially valuable as opposed to a sentence to have to constantly mingle with interminable boring hypocrites

GREVILLE FANE. A half-affectionate,but thoroughly bitchy fictional obituary of a Victorian version of Joan Collins. At least the author/narrator has the grace to admit this is somewhat inspired by jealousy of commercial success.