Glasses

by Henry James

This was a little person whom I would have made a high bid for a good chance to paint. The head, the features, the color, the whole facial oval and radiance had a wonderful purity; the deep grey eyes -- the most agreeable, I thought, that I had ever seen -- brushed with a kind of winglike grace every object they encountered. Their possessor was just back from Boulogne, where she had spent a week with dear Mrs. Floyd-Taylor: this accounted for the effusiveness of her reunion with dear Mrs. Meldrum. Her black garments were of the freshest and daintiest; she suggested a pink-and-white wreath at a showy funeral. She confounded us for three minutes with her presence; she was a beauty of the great conscious public responsible order. The young men, her companions, gazed at her and grinned: I could see there were very few moments of the day at which young men, these or others, would not be so occupied.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1896

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

[Siv30 · Rating 3 out of 5]

לסקירה מפורטת בעיברית, קישור לבלוג שלי-

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/משקפ...

[Atul_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5⭐

[Any · Rating 4 out of 5]

"rivendico il mio diritto a esser brutta"
questo dice irenedicecose su tiktok, questo ha dovuto passare Flora Saunt
disgrazia? maledizione? malattia incurabile?
no, è stata la svolta della sua vita che prima girava intorno a moda, estetica e poco altro
come biasimarla? queste le sue armi per sopravvivere in un mondo dove gli uomini considerano una tragedia non tanto la cecità, ma piuttosto l'obbligo di rovinare un bel faccino come il suo con uno strumento infernale come questo
geniale, sicuramente non gentile ma figlio del suo tempo

[Ci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a puzzling small tale but may warrant future re-read.

Flora Saunt walked in our views with an uneven quality of beauty: no figure yet a strange and hauntingly beautiful face. She worships her own beauty like a celebrant on her own altar, flourishing with an ostensive confidence and brazenness. One is too easy to write her off as the vainest and shallowness person who is on the hunt for a rich and glamorous marriage. Our attention is channelled through the eyes of an interested painter. We all seemed to agree that it is her face not her soul that attracts, in fact, the latter item seemed to be in poor condition.

There is a physical flaw that Flora hides from the world and herself. That flaw is the crux of this story. One can read it as an allegory, either of life or art. It is in this allegorical potential that I will assign this story to "re-read". My first read does not leave me much pleasure nor understanding, which I hope that future re-read will revise.

[Mark Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flora Louise Saunt is an orphaned young lady, but is so beautiful that she turns heads wherever she goes and counts on her beauty to attain security as the wife of young Lord Iffield, one of many who has fallen under her enchantment. Another is the narrator, a painter who could not resist portraying her multiple times and who becomes her confidant in the one difficulty she seems to have - she does not see well and her eyes seem to be seriously worsening. Lest I should endanger someone else's enjoyment, I will desist in synopsizing this very touching tale which, unlike many other of James' masterpieces, actually ends quite happily - and with a very astute use of Wagner's Lohengrin in its brilliantly executed climactic scene!