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Relativism and the Expression of Value Judgments in Henry James's "The Next Time" - Critical Essay

Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1997 by Jose Antonio Alvarez Amoros

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Among the instances of resemanticization that result in the paradoxical arrangement of words, I may quote these five passages: "She [Jane Highmore] yearned to be, like Limbert, but of course only once, an exquisite failure" (308); "[Mrs. Highmore's pursuit of literary quality] had never rescued her from the hard doom of popularity" (309); "[Limbert's fiction serialized in Mr. Bousefield's journal] was too hideous a triumph" (336); "That was the colour of his [Limbert's] magnificent mistake" (336); and "it was a forcing-house for the three or four other fine miscarriages to which his [Limbert's] scheme was evidently condemned" (346). All conform exactly to the same type: within one frame of reference these collocations are paradoxical because there is a clash of positive and negative semantic features; within the other this clash disappears because one term of the collocation can be interpreted in a different sense. The context of the two initial fragments is Jane Highmore's plea for the narrator's favorable review of her forthcoming book, and in the first case "exquisite failure" obviously means "exquisite triumph," the word "failure" preserving its ordinary sense exclusively if used against the background of literary pragmatism wherein a book fails when it does not sell. Of course, to pair "exquisite" and "failure" gives rise to a contradictory collocation only if we think of the denotation of the latter. The second quotation sounds paradoxical if we accept the ordinary sense of "hard doom" in accordance with one of the basic tenets of literary quality ("to be popular is a disturbance"); but, within the frame of literary pragmatism, popularity is not a "hard doom" but rather a likable prize often enjoyed by Jane Highmore and consistently denied to Ralph Limbert.

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The next two quotations occur at the end of chapter 4, when the narrator, after reading Limbert's novel in book form, regrets his friend's incapacity. to debase his works. On the one hand, he is happy with Limbert's unfading artistry; on the other, he sadly realizes that he will not achieve a decent living with his writings. This ambivalent attitude ("I exulted almost with tears--I lamented with a strange delight" [336]) is revealed in such collocations as "hideous triumph" and "magnificent mistake," whose non-paradoxical meanings are obtained only if interpreted within the respective frames of literary pragmatism and literary quality. In the first case, Limbert's artistic triumph can only be hideous from the point of view of the market, whereas in the second his commercial mistake is verily magnificent if viewed from a position of literary excellence. The context of the last passage is Limbert's retirement to live in the country and his progressive renunciation of making money from literature. The interpretation of "fine miscarriages" follows the same pattern as that of "exquisite failure." Limbert's final books can be "miscarriages" only from the perspective of "the impression to be made on the market" (352); a "miscarriage" is here a "masterpiece," and only in this sense can the word be meaningfully collocated with the adjective "fine."

Relativism and the Expression of Value Judgments in Henry James's "The Next Time" - Critical Essay

Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1997 by Jose Antonio Alvarez Amoros

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