



S1: duh, well, i ain't so sure what we're gonna do today... to (straighten) up my horror of course is, the idea that i talk like other professors. surely that's not the case, tell me that's not the case. um, we have a little housekeeping business to, attend to today uh, i have the first uh, set of papers to give back to, a handful of you who uh wrote on, uh this topic. i'll do that in just a second. uh but let me make a couple of points to you, uh about these writing assignments. first um i don't want you to rely on me to, give you the assignment if you're absent from class. uh partly that's simply a practical matter and that is i only check my email about every third day because i forget i have it so uh uh y- uh you're much more than likely to, uh get no answer from me out of sheer, inadvertence. but also i don't wanna do that uh e- b- even by choice. so what i suggest is that you, think summer camp, did you all go to summer camp? you get a buddy, uh you know you look out for each other so that if you're drowning you have a buddy that'll say hey he's drowning um, so if you miss class and want to find out if there was a writing assignment then i suggest, you not email me, much less call me, but email your buddy. maybe that uh Nick where did Nick go? Nick? he may uh uh, be softhearted, and answer for you but, i'm not going to. so that's my suggestion to you find somebody in the class who'll, who'll uh, do that for you. now secondly i'm about to take up the writing assignments that you did last time, but let me remind you if you have uh, elevated this writing assignment to be one of your formal ones that you want it graded, again designate that with a big uh, uh W at the top, which stands for, writing or, woe is me or will this never end or whatever some W though so that, Nick will know that's, uh, your paper. um, let me then, hand back these this first set Nick did you wanna say anything about these uh? 
S2: no they were they were look good so far. um, don't be afraid to use the i, um and 
S1: ha- students are though aren't they? 
S2: yeah i don't know i sh- i- i remember being taught that somewhere along the line, so 
S1: i was too and i think it's the dumbest thing i ever heard about. 
S2: yeah go ahead and use the first person. and you can assume, that your reader has um, is familiar with the text. i mean again with a with a three-page, response there's no real need to get, to get too um, ah expositional with uh, your explanations about plot or, or you know sort of the action, the narrative action of the story so you can just assume straight off the bat that, um your reader has read, the text and yeah it's uh 
S1: knows who the characters are, [S2: yeah ] yeah uh just just assume you have a <S2 LAUGH> knowledgable reader so that you don't have to tell the story we don't want plot summary, or uh thumbnail descriptions of who the characters are assume that's all (known) and get on to the problem. [S2: yeah ] okay? uh, Pun Din Fan? 
SU-M: right 
S1: uh Gail Chadwick? 
S3: here 
S1: Mary Jaralin? uh Lillian Heffner? and Shelly Zimford. do y'all remember that that, did you see the story on the news there was some professor i think over at uh Macomb Community College, uh and he was getting in all sorts of trouble for using such profane language an English professor of course, using such profane language so i'm tempted to do that today just riddle my speech with you know all of this profanity and see if they would, give us an X rating. uh okay, uh i had asked you to uh give me your opinion today on a particular topic, um having to do with Christopher Newman's disposition of the letter that uh, comes into his possession from the, the old Marquis... and i wanna take those up now, uh but i also wanted to uh pose one, fact question, for you to answer my, daily factoid, on the same sheet, it's this. uh when Christopher Newman, uh last sees, Noemie Nioche, in London, uh with whom is she walking? [SU-F: huh ] when Christopher Newman, last sees, Noemie Nioche in London, uh, with whom is she walking? <P :08> okay, so pass those up. <P :23> oh i should say i think i've said this before but let me say again, um, if you're here and hadn't done the writing assignment but just want to get credit simply for attending a- and you should get some, uh just give me a piece of paper with your name on it if nothing else that will say, you're here, you may not have done the work, in advance but you're here. okay do i have some? <P :10> this it? <P :14> why don't you sort those and, take what's yours. <P :13> last time, i tried to, suggest to you the, agenda that uh, the conscious agenda, that Henry James had in writing The American, uh that in the preface, that he wrote about almost thirty-five years later, uh i- and he's remembering the origins of this novel, how the idea came to him what he wanted to do in it, uh and if you recall that he said that he wanted to create a situation in which, an American, in some ways a, a typical American, um going to Europe, uh i- is dealt some grievous, injustice, by a society that thinks itself uh superior, to him, in every way. uh and that the occasion would arise for him to be able to exact some kind of uh retribution or revenge for that injustice. uh and, the question that fascinated James was, what would he do, uh in that case? uh and, um so we get to that situation today when we co- we'll come, in a bit to talk about uh the letter that he has that would, inflict some, significant damage, presumably, uh on the Bellegardes, and his, decision, not to do it, not to use it, uh, in that way. but with that in mind the, part of the novel that i had you read for the first day and that's a lot, over three hundred pages, in some ways really doesn't, develop, that particular, uh complexity very much, uh the wrong, that is done Christopher Newman, that comes only in chapter eighteen. uh and even then um, i- i- in one sense we wonder is this uh, a grievous wrong i mean i- i- uh i guess in one way it is when, her family forces Claire to, break off her engagement to him, um but in that, uh chapter, when uh, uh... Newman goes, to the Bellegarde's home, uh that's after the night at the opera, uh, where uh, Valentin uh becomes embroiled in this (situation) that will lead to the duel and his death. um when when uh, Newman enters the house their house the next time it says on page three-twelve, um <READING> he felt as soon as he entered the room that he was in the presence of something evil. </READING> now there were a lot of reasons not to like the Bellegardes, uh, you know they're snobbish they're hidebound, they're on a high horse and all this sort of, uh but, just the night, a few nights before, uh, Newman was uh, well sort of teasing, the old Marquis... at the ball, uh he was in such a good mood and he was sort of uh joshing with her and joking with her and all this sort of thing um, i- i- you know needling her, ag- uh, uh and she obviously didn't like this. but the the relationship between them is not one where he felt that there was something evil. what what accounts, in effect for the shift, from, a comedy of manners what i suggested to you last time is that the first part of The American, is really a comedy of manners, where you just have two cultures clashing, uh, the brash, frank, spontaneous openhearted good-natured rather ignorant American, Christopher Newman, i mean even that name is so symbolic isn't it new man, Christopher the founder of the- uh discoverer of the new world, at least in the, old history, um so you have this, uh this figure on the one hand and then you have the Bellegardes on the other the upholders of uh, tradition, and form, and protocol, and all the sort of the aristocratic prerogatives, and the clash between these two is not really a moral one there's no right or wrong here so much as there is simply, the ways that two different cultures behave and the clash that occurs when, one, a figure from one of these cultures, tries to insinuate himself, into the milieu of of one of the others, and so there's a certain degree of of sort of comic misadventure going on here, uh that in its own way is is uh, more amusing than anything else. um, <READING> suddenly then </READING> in this next chapter <READING> Newman felt he was in the presence of something evil. </READING> so that at this point the novel turns, from being uh novelistic, uh to being what James himself later identifies as uh, we're tur- talking genre now, a romance. um, i said some of this to you last time but let me repeat it very briefly, the novel uh deals with the true to life, the ordinary, the everyday. uh and a great degree the criterion for judging a novel is verisimilitude, trueness to life. uh does that, represent life as we, live it, as we experience? does it seem to us then, true? this is not the criterion of uh of the romance. the romance uh by its very nature deals with the extraordinary, uh often with the supernatural if not that, maybe with the preternatural, uh so that you get extreme situations, uh and things happen in romances that uh don't happen in everyday life. i remember when, certain critics were objecting about that movie Pocahontas did you see that? that it wasn't historically accurate, and Mel Gibson said for God's sake there's a raccoon in it that talks <SU-F LAUGH> of course it's not historically accurate. so i- you know in other words you don't expect historical accuracy of a work that never claims to be, a work of history, uh but it is instead a kind of fantasy, so that romance uh, certainly shades into fantasy or to the extraordinary, the extreme, the preternatural, something like that. uh and so we we suddenly move from being in the world of the novel, where we have this comic clash of manners, to uh to a world of romance, in the literary sense. this has nothing to do with kissy kissy, um but uh to, the strange the ominous, oh... inexplicable so, so uh, how is James going to make the Bellegardes seem not just stuffy, not just, arrogant, but evil? and in what way then does that impact uh on on Christopher Newman? uh after all, i- i- i think James later in his career would have been perfectly able and willing to have made a novel out of, nothing more than their forcing Claire to break off the engagement, see, uh, you can get great literature out of, families, getting in the way of love you know Romeo and Juliet all that sort of thing, uh and i think James would have done that. here however he complicates it by wanting to make this in a sense really a kind of melodrama, of good and evil, uh and the Bellegardes then in some way have to be, uh b- i- or transmogrified? okay. that's a big word, for our recording today. <SS LAUGH> uh have to be uh transmogrified into something, far more... sinister, than simply, um, arrogant, aristocrats who say to, Newman, <READING> we made her break it off, says the Marquis, i could not in the last analysis reconcile myself to a commercial person. </READING> now you know okay that might be... how would you say uh... unfair. it might be bad- it might even be in bad faith they ha- a- they had after all made a bargain, uh of sorts with Newman and then they're now acting in bad faith all that may be true but it's a long way from that to saying, i felt i was in the presence of something evil and that the reader is supposed to share i think that feeling, that there's something very dark and sinister going on, in the house of Bellegarde and indeed, on his dying bed, Valentin, divulges that there's some great, dark family secret, and that there's a letter that contains all this and if Newman could only come into the possession of that letter... well okay if Newman could come into the possession of that letter what...? you see, uh, early on, after they force Claire to break off the engagement, as she which she does, she enters a convent. that's almost right out of romance (or Agatha Christie) you have a, unhappy love affair, you go to a convent it happens all the time in medieval romance. um, so, what use will this letter be to, Christopher? uh, even if he has it? it won't get Claire back for him, because she's now, for a very different reason, unreachable... will it give him simply the satisfaction of, revenge? he says to Mrs Bread, um, on page three-seventy-five, <READING> i want to bring them down down down. i want to turn the tables upon them. i want to mortify them as they mortified me. </READING> notice Claire's out of the picture now. this is not gonna get Claire back. um, <READING> they took me up into a high place and they made me stand there for all the world to see me and then they stole behind me and pushed me into this bottomless pit, where i lie howling and gnashing my teeth, i made a fool of myself before their friends, but i shall make something worse, of them. </READING> or he says to uh the Marquise herself uh on page uh, four-fourteen when he's, presenting them with the evidence that he has of the murder, uh and that he will be able to use it against them but again, it's not clear, to what end. there's nothing practical or instrumental that he can achieve by this. as i say it won't get Claire back, um... about halfway down the page, uh <READING> no he says i want to say a few words more i want to say that i hope you quite understand what i am about. this is my revenge, you know. you have treated me before the world convened for the express purpose as if i were not good enough, for you. i mean to show the world that however bad i may be, you are not quite the people to say it. </READING> so is this then in some ways a kind of status battle? hm? uh they acted so high and mighty, they, mortified me in front of all the world, made a fool of me, well, two can play at that game, and i think i have a, trump for their ace, that i am planning to play, to show the world what they're like. so that's the, the initial motive for his uh wanting to find this letter, and um, his stratagem, for um, for planning to use it. and we'll come in to a minute, to the question in a minute of, why doesn't he. uh but let me, take up one other matter for just a moment. um, one of the difficulties of this novel, from, almost every critic, uh that i've, presumed for, a lot of you ordinary readers, what Virginia Woolf calls the common reader, she means well by that, she she admires the common reader, uh is that uh the figure of Claire is very nebulous, very indistinct, uh in this novel. she doesn't emerge very vividly, in her own right. uh and all sorts of questions arise about, Claire's motivation. is she really in love with Newman? does she have none of her, family's aristocratic distaste for his commercial background and origins? if they're so appalled by this, that he once made washtubs, why not Claire? uh, why is she so willing to accept him, when everyone else finds him_ even Valentin, remember when, uh, just for first uh, broaches the subject of the_ even Valentin his his friend is, shocked, by the idea. you can't marry my sister <LAUGH> it would be unheard of. so why is Claire so uh pliable in this? why is she so accepting? um, is it, some, enormous charm that he has <LAUGH> or real love? okay, is she simply wanting to get away from that wretched mother? you can certainly understand that, uh is there is there i- does there seem to be any real spark, between them or chemistry, between them, uh if we were reviewing this as a movie, you know um, what would Roger say? there's no real chemistry between these two characters. a- a- and there may not be and then if so if there really is some uh deep affection, why does Claire so easily break off the engagement? her mother says, i demanded that she do so and she obeyed. not much of an explanation. (do you think?) so that the whole figure of Claire in some way remains, um sort of vague and uh nebulous. and, again, many years later when James is writing his preface, for the New York edition of of The American, um he perceives that weakness. but he tries in a certain way to make it, into a virtue uh when he tells us what he was trying to do. reading, the prose of James, at that later period is always a, challenge. it's extremely difficult. uh but let me, try a f- a couple sentences on you of what he was saying about uh uh, Claire and indeed all of the other characters in the novel, except Newman. um, <READING> he was the lighted, figure, </READING> that is Newman. uh <READING> the others, even doubtless to an excessive degree the woman who is made the agent of his discomfort, </READING> that is Claire, uh <READING> were to be obscured. </READING> again, Newman is the lighted figure if you think of this as a play, the spotlight's on Newman. <READING> the others including Claire, </READING> he says <READING> were to be, obscured. by which i should largely get the very effect, most to be invoked, that of a generous nature engaged with forces, with difficulties, and with dangers, that it but half understands. </READING> the other characters have to be mysterious, obscure, their motives not, apparent, because, the perception of them that i- we have is only Newman's. he doesn't understand them he doesn't know what they're up to he doesn't, uh, guage the complexity of their motives and so forth, so James said i had to leave those characters obscure to the reader because they were obscure to him, you see. um <READING> he </READING> that is Newman again <READING> he therefore, supremely matters, the rest matters only as he feels it, treats it, meets it. </READING> so, uh, to go into the background of that statement would take us too far afield but what's happened, by the time James comes to write the preface here, is that, literary modernism has begun to emerge, uh and um often in that... literary mode um, the concentration is entirely on, the single s- figure as it experiences the world, and therefore it becomes an exercise in subjectivity. rather than writing the kind of uh, sociological novel, where you have a vast cast of characters and we can enter in the mind of any one of these characters at any time because we have an omniscient author, uh and therefore you can see, this is what this guy's thinking that's what this girl's thinking this is what this man's thinking this is what his mother's thinking uh, uh the the om- the omniscient author allows us to enter into the mind of any character at any time, and so we, the- they're in some ways all, equally imagined. if you think of a great novel like say Middlemarch i think, Eliot must have there, thirty or so major characters and at any moment she can, she can tell us, what this character's thinking what his motives are why he's doing, what he's doing but with modernism, uh, and the increase in subjectivity, uh we begin to get the world is experienced only through one sensibility. uh i suppose the most uh famous example of this is, James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, where Steven Daedelus is the only, uh reality of the novel everybody else exists only as Steven perceives them. uh and when he quits thinking about 'em for all practical purposes they cease to exist it's a very sort of, solipsistic novel. uh, th- that is, the the only reality that things have are are, in the mind of the perceiver. uh and uh in that novel his even his, very obscure love, the woman Amarata, uh we don't even know her name we know he has a girlfriend we know her name is E-C her we know her initials are E-C but we don't even know what her name is um, i- so that she remains simply a floating fleeting figment of uh of Steven's perception. uh so that modernism will come to, uh elevate, that mode to a a uh to a particular uhh sort of aesthetic modus operandi, uh that the only character that you really have to, give great, reality in life to, is the central, consciousness, the figure who possesses that central consciousness. now, as i say James writes the preface thirty-five years after he writes the novel, and he wrote a novel in which you have a lot of not very well or not very believable characters. um, certainly they don't have the, the richness and depth, that we would expect from James's later characters. and so he's in some way trying to make a virtue out of that by saying well, you have to understand the only character who really matters in this novel, is Christopher Newman. uh what we wanna see is a novel, from his point of view, from his perspective. and he didn't understand these people, he didn't know what... the depth and complexity of Claire's, motives, and personality were. um and, uh uh therefore, she remains to some degree an enigma, uh in the novel because she was an enigma, to, Christopher and, i suppose that, the- there's, some degree of uh, legitimacy, uh in that claim. i think am i right about this? i don't think there's any scene in the novel that he's not in. we never have some scene where, Claire is confiding in someone, why she's, engaged to h- of course i m- who would you confide to in that house? but but you see the the uh, the problem that, that if Newman is in every scene then there is never any sense of what's going on behind, what he sees, what the, intricacies are and so forth, unless some other character tells him, but then you have to wonder what their motives are they are they always telling the truth and so forth? so when you when you limit the novel as James does here, to the, experience and perceptions of a single character, then it means that the m- motives and and inner lives of the other characters remain this, to a great degree a kind of closed book. does that make sense to you? [SU-M: mhm ] so uh, there is a lot of reader dissatisfaction i think with how obscure and in some way unreal, then the character of of Claire is. because for example Valentin, is a much better developed character. uh, James doesn't have to sacrifice uh, the depth of character development, uh as, you can see with with that character who's, who comes much more to life, has much more, reality to him than, than his sister does. but in a way, uh James is committed to keeping Claire as this kind of, ideal, uh this treasure, this uh uh, sort of almost unattainable item, the best item in the market, you see, which Newman is wanting to buy. to some degree that, may depend upon, um... the distance, from it. you see if you get up close, then you begin to see you know, maybe she has bad breath, uh or uh you know, there may be a, a, wart on her, her nose that he hadn't seen before. in other words the the the the, this idealization of Claire may, to some degree, depend upon, uh her always remaining sort of, this distant uh, idealized, figure. uh w- but then we come to uh uh i think the even more difficult figure of the the Marquis, her mother. uh there's a kind of comic figure early on in the novel. um, you know appalled that her daughter might marry this A- not only this American but this American businessman this, this savage this, boor, um, and, certainly uh that scene where they're giving the great ball and uh, Newman is pushing it for all it's worth you know um, making her walk around meeting all her friends and you know she's, chagrined by the whole thing, uh b- but all of that has its its its sort of comic side, and then suddenly we're told in this chapter, uh there's something evil, in this house, something sinister, and indeed there is, because it turns out the Marquis, in addition to being a stuffed shirt, is a murderess. now where did that come from? see straight out of romance you think they the family's keeping this great dark secret that, uh the Marquis had murdered her husband. but then again if you start looking at it in detail, that doesn't make a lot of sense either. uh, what has she murdered him f- why did she murder him...? cuz he opposes the marriage of their daughter to, Count de Cintre who the hell is the Count de Cintre? turns out, he's a fraud. there's no money, uh treats Claire badly. besides, this family prides itself on being one of the most important distinguished old families in France, there's no great, gain that i can see by marrying Claire off to this guy, even if he were who they thought he was, which he isn't. so if anything the Marquis comes off not only as a murderess but kind of a dimwit. the th- uh this is the best way you can arrange a marriage for your daughter by killing your husband? and it really doesn't make a lot of sense the the whole thing is, contrived, and creaky. but what James is wanting to do here is, find some great terrible crime that the Bellegardes have been hiding all these years. mhm? 
S4: i thought the passage where um Mrs Bread is talking about the ribbon that she kept like all her life, i mean i thought there must be something going on there, 
S1: between the two of them 
S4: between the two of 'em, i mean even if it wasn't, official, officially consummated 
S1: yeah. but uh but uh uh, would that be a motive for murder? in France particularly. <SS LAUGH> i- when President Mitterand died at his by the his graveside were his wife and mistress both standing there holding hands you know <SU-F LAUGH> i mean, they do these things differently in France. but i don't know uh b- uh b- b- there may i- she says, Mrs Bread says that the Marquis accused her of that, accused them of having something going on, but, i'm British she says. <SU-F LAUGH> we don't do that sort of thing. um so i don't know i- uh uh, i- again i would think the later James would probably have taken up that sort of possibility, making this far more but i think this is just sheer melodrama, that he's concoct- that James is concocting here. i mean, writing this letter on your deathbed, i've been poisoned, you know, my wife is killing me, and writing this letter and s- secreting it to the servant i mean you know the whole thing is out of, bad opera isn't it? uh uh a- and and, you know as i say James himself later came to feel this when he_ you you can tell he's kind of embarrassed, uh when he writes this, introduction all those years later at uh the, the sort of uh clumsy creakiness, of his plot in this part_ it is George Sand i- i- it's straight George Sand. as i told you she used to write, this kind of novel they were immensely popular, they're sort of uh, you know the, harlequin romances of their day, uh and and so in in in some sense you know, the gloomy castle, and the family with the hidden secrets and, murder being committed there and uh all you know, everybody knowing it but nobody, mentioning it to the other they carry around this great guilty secret all these years, that now falls into, uh to Newman's hands. so i i i think it in other words in order to get thi- to, get this transition, from the comedy of manners to this melodrama which is really about, questions of, crime, great moral questions, um, in- involves, a great leap on James's part from uh one kind of fiction to another from one kind of world into another, we're now into this world of, dark sinister forces at work uh in the house of Bellegarde, and it just doesn't really, uh, convince, i think. uh th- this is, the problem with the latter part of the novel. but he's doing all of this, uh to bring us to that scene that i asked you to write about for today. uh, that, when, Newman has in his possession this, letter, written by the Marquis, as he's dying, um and, can... exact, a revenge for all of the indignity he'd done him, what does he do with it? and why...? and in a w- a very important way, this was, James's, initial idea. this is the germ of the novel he wanted this great moment, that when the American has been so terribly wronged, you know as he says dealt this grievous wrong, and has it in his power to pay back, with interest, what does he do, and why does he do it? and is it the right thing to do? that's what i wanted you to pine on today. mhm? 
S5: well i thought that, that there was no choice like, as far as his character goes for him to do anything else but burn the letter. because like, he's so, noble, like he's presented as such a noble figure that like, even as i read the last few chapters i'm like yeah right he's not gonna use the letter [S1: did you, did you know that? oh ] he's just gonna like yeah he's just gonna like get rid of the letter because, it seemed, so out of character you know i'm gonna bring them down down down [S1: yeah ] i'm like, but, it was so melodramatic to me that it was just like no he's just, he's, he's (not, he's just) 
S1: do you, and do you remember an earlier scene we don't see it but he tells us about it, where he had a business rival, [S5: yeah ] in his power and he could have destroyed the business rival? 
S5: but he didn't. 
S1: and he didn't. he was too, what? 
S5: he was too noble for that, to, (to do it) 
S1: too noble, too magnanimous, he's not that type? so you di- you knew ahead of time are you you're sort of prepared for this huh? um... [S5: yeah uh ] anybody else wanna, jump in here? okay can we get a debate in any way going? should he have used the letter? Jean? 
S6: um, maybe he was sort of you know he was, set up there's a scene in which, he meets the Marquis and her son i, can never remember the title, [S1: yeah ] in the park in which he says couldn't you have met me without my mother? and (i'll belittle) them, as well, i thought. and there were a couple of scenes in which, th- there seemed to be a sort of, understanding between the two men, between um Newman and, the son the the the- the Bellegarde 
S1: yeah the yeah the young, the young Marquis? 
S6: yeah the young Marquis, in which um each recognized, the uh talents of the other or the the ingrained nobleness, of the other. 
S1: well h- he feels that way more about the mother i think doesn't he? he says to the Ma- the the the the titles here are hard, Marquis is the feminine and i guess Marquises is the plural, (jumping in) um and he says to the Marquis uh i would have been your greatest admirer. uh, he in fact he sees some, kinship i think between himself and her, uh that they are you know in the way they're both sort of daring, bold, uh the son is kind of a, a factotum isn't he? kind of a wimp uh yeah his mother's always saying do something he says what? uh you know and he's not he's not a great, figure in the novel i think, but but, Newman does see a kind of_ you wonder if the Marquis had if the roles were reversed and she had a letter she could use on Newman, not too much question she'd have, stuck it in him and twisted it is there? i mean she i- she's a pretty ruthless figure. i mean anybody who would kill their husband over a, question of who shall our daughter marry, and if they disagree, she poisons him uh i mean you know, and, (uh you know) i think in some way, uh James is meaning for us to see her as this great, the, as the French would say formidable you know this this, imposing sort of figure, uh and and Newman really admires her. uh, but is it that that, keeps him from, playing his trump card? mhm? 
S7: um i guess, i thought that, in a way i kinda hoped that he would, tell everybody about it, just because, they were so mean that, you kinda didn't want them to get away with it. 
S1: that they deserved it. 
S7: yeah. 
S1: yeah. um, any of you feel that way? maybe i should have put it in this way if you'd been in Newman's place what would you have done with the letter? <P :06> not much, juice in this question? uh is it is it is the story too, stacked, so that there's not really much doubt of what Newman's gonna do? and is that indeed not in some way James's point? you see, uh... to take revenge would have, lowered, Newman's, character to their level. yeah 
S8: uh i think that, throughout the novel, Newman was so built up, to be this noble and great person just in order to, have a shot, at even at even marrying her, that 
S1: that's right, he has to yeah. 
S8: that, at the end of the novel he c- he had to burn the letter in order, because that was in his character. if he [S1: okay ] if he would've, if he wouldn't have burned it it wouldn't- it would've been totally out of his character and wouldn't have represented, the first half of the novel at all. 
S1: okay. okay that- that- he is so good and you know this is what Mrs Tristram says to him right at the end, the Bellegardes never really feared you very much. and that's the reason why mhm? 
S9: that's that's what i think is so interesting cuz how i read the end was that, after you know, Mrs Tristram says, you know you're a great person they were never (scared at the beginning,) he kinda he looks back [S1: that's right ] and he wishes and he's you know he wishes he weren't that way or somethi- you know you kinda wonder if he does not 
S1: yeah that ending is very interesting isn't it? uh this has caused of critical, ink to be spilled. uh what does that mean? that very last sentence where, she sa- says, they bluffed you they, they knew they could bluff you. they counted on your good nature. you see, so that they, they really, you know if it's like a poker game, they knew they could, yeah. and then so the last sentence as he sort of looks back to see the letter, to see if it was all burned, does that indicate then that he wishes he hadn't been so gullible, that he's having second thoughts? if he had the letter back now would he do something or is it just, uh maybe she's right, the letter's gone, that's, you know and you can you can interpret, James loves these sort of ambiguous endings, you know that don't, wrap everything up for you quite as uh, concisely and neatly as you, might have desired and so, so there're there're there're very different ways of reading that great ending. but clearly i think, uh what James is wanting to do, was to make Newman superior to the Bellegardes. there is a passage in Shakespeare's The Tempest that i wanted to read to you um, you probably don't know the story and i'm not gonna, try to fill you in much on it, but uh the central character Prospero, i- is a, a a man who's learned magic and ha- has in his power a group of people who did him a terrible wrong. much more than, the Bellegardes did to, Christopher Newman, uh they meant to kill him in fact um, and now they're in his power, uh and he can do with them uh, what he will, what he will, uh and his, servant of the air Ariel, uh says <READING> your charm so strongly works on 'em, that if you beheld them your affection would become tender. </READING> and Prospero says <READING> do you think so spirit? </READING> and Ariel says, this is, such great Shakespeare, <READING> mine would sir, were i human. </READING> and i- Prospero says <READING> and mine shall. though with their high wrongs i am struck to the quick. yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury do i take part. the rare action is in virtue than in vengeance. </READING> that that, that's the great line. <READING> the rarer action, is in virtue, than in vengeance. </READING> uh, so in a sense he's saying paying, people back, in kind for what they did to you, is never as noble, never even as reasonable, he says, uh as acting, virtuously, kindly, forgivingly. it's a wonderful sentiment. i don't buy it for a moment, i'm the revenge type. <SS LAUGH> mhm? 
S10: um i also think that, part of it is at the end of the story he's tired. you know? he's, he's endured so much um, action and so much, like injustice, that at the end he comes he only has his himself and his character to draw upon, his past, um and he realizes i think that, um, to act, to disgrace the Bellegarde's name would also be, um to hurt those that he's come to, to love most. 
S1: well but Valentin's dead, and Claire would never know about it she's in a 
S10: because that's all he has, yeah, yeah because that's, all they had protecting them, um Claire and Valentin that's, the only thing. he had everything, you know he had money he has his personal honor he has all of that, he just doesn't have a noble title, and especially for those two, and Valentin being dead, his name his family name is pretty much all he had he didn't have, um wealth or a career for himself, and so 
S1: but that would be do you see that then as having a kind of an ulterior motive? i mean that that he that he does have a kind of, what would you say, uh reason other than just the goodness of the action itself to motivate him? does my question make sense to you? 
S10: not so much. 
S1: i mean the- a- a- are you are you saying that that uh, there's still a certain amount of calculation, in what Newman is doing where he says, well, if i did that i would hurt, s- these people or i would hurt myself in this way, rather than it just being this completely, generous, disinterested, which i hope you know doesn't mean uninterested, action on his part? 
S10: and i think part of it is, a big part of it is calculated just like in the story, even his affections for Claire part of it was calculated. part of it was genuine i think, you know that he actually [S1: that's right ] felt special around her but part of it was, [S1: yeah ] um his own motivation and his knowing that, you know they had that, she had that thing to [S1: yeah, that's right ] offer, to him, and so, i think the same way in the end part of it's virtue part of it's genuine and part of it's, um his his knowing that um, that that would hurt them, [S1: okay l- ] cuz there's nothing they can do to, to defend that, (xx) 
S1: let's look for just a minute at the at the scene where he'd ac- he actually decides that he's not going to take the revenge b- a little before he bu- burns the letter. he's gone back to Paris, after being in America for a while, uh he, you know is wandering around, he goes into Notre Dame this this pa- passage always, amuses me greatly, uh i i i don't know if you any of you have ever been to Paris have you ever tried to get into Notre Dame cathedral these days? it's like being in a, New York subway at rush hour i mean you know it's just like, and here he's all alone he can sit down and he can think and contemplate that sort of thing and i thought, lots of luck trying that these days. um, but here he is in Notre Dame, um at the top of page four forty-six... <READING> he leaned his head for a long time on the chair in front of him. when he took it up he felt that he was himself again. somewhere in his mind a tight knot seemed to have loosened. he thought of the Bellegardes, he had almost forgotten them. he remembered them as a people he had meant to do something to. he gave a groan as he remembered what he had meant to do. he was annoyed at having meant to do it. the bottom suddenly had fallen out of his revenge. whether it was Christian charity or unregenerate good nature, what it was in the background of his soul i don't pretend to say. but Newman's last thought was that of course, he would let the Bellegardes go. if he had spoken it aloud he would have said that he did not want to hurt them. he was ashamed, of having wanted to hurt them. they had hurt him, but such things were not really, his game. </READING> so uh, James is just wanting in a sense to present, Newman as too noble, to do anything, vindictive, or vengeful. so that in the novel there's been a kind of complete reversal, of values. who is now the real nobleman, what Benjamin Franklin would call, nature's nobleman? uh and, it's clearly Newman. and what are the aristocrats, except hypocrites, forceurs you know opposers (xx) uh phonies? uh who have no real nobility for all of their blue blood for all of their title, there's no real nobility, in their behavior at all, th- this is, the American's. mkay so that rather than the novel in any way being a condescension on the part of Europe, to the American, the tables are turned, uh it's a kind of condescension, on the part of the American, toward the Europeans. which is not too surprising o- we think in an American writer, except that James in some ways uh was so much more, attuned to Europe and its values than he was to America and its, that it's in a way surprising, of all writers, for James to be the one to, in a sense celebrate elevate, uh almost uh canonize, this this American_ not only an America- American businessman. you see, that type, so, not exactly reviled but mocked, uh uh and uh the the butt of so much uh, criticism, uh to make this figure then in some way, the noblest figure in the book, uh is, in many ways a very striking, reversal, i think of uh, expectation. 
S4: i think there was some nobility in uh when he goes to the older lady, um Madame d' [S1: Outreville the duchess ] Outreville? right and the way she behaves where she doesn't, allude to any of the bad things that have happened to Newman, i think she behaves very nobly in that scene. 
S1: well he thinks she's just simply being, um, how shall we say it, uh, super subtle, rather cunning. uh le- let me take this up with you just for a second, uh this is in the stage where he still wants to expose the Bellegardes. he's got that letter in his pocket and he's going around, this is the the beginning he thinks of, showing them up for what they are and the first person that he goes to is is is the old duchess, the supposedly the most uh what? venerated figure in, aristocratic France. and he doesn't do it, he doesn't show her the letter. is it because, h- her, the nobility of her character dissuades him...? his own view of this is wh- what do you recall...? she would have believed it. he had no, he didn't doubt that, that she would've believed him. but uh, she would in a sense have closed ranks, with the Bellegardes. she might even later, who knows this is, pure speculation, she might even later have, in some way criticized them. but not to him, not publicly, not to an outsider you see. so that he saw suddenly that he's dealing with uh, people who even if he divulged this information they might indeed think much less of the Bellegardes, but it would always be, contained, within those, private walls of the, of the Saint-Germaine. does that make sense? and he realized in a way, i don't know that_ i don't know how this affects our idea of his nobleness, but he realizes in a way, what's he gonna do with these letters, if not burn them...? was there no, National Enquirer in Paris then? no Hard Copy? no gossip columnist that you know, couldn't you do something with this letter? it's it's, partly it seems as if Newman doesn't have an avenue for his, if he_ although i don't think, that's what James wanted us to conclude. you see, that he didn't expose them because he simply had no means to do it i don't think James wanted us to view it in those terms, but rather to see it as this act of great, magnanimity. there's another problem with this that i wanted to raise with you although in a way it's an illegitimate, consideration, uh, i've always thought, th- tha- that Newman did the wrong thing by burning the letters, because i thought he owed something to the old Marquis. the old Marquis uh gave the letter to Mrs Bread and said uh, uh on page four-fourteen, uh, <READING> he put it into her hands, she said, sh- he put it into her hands with the solemn injunction that she was to make it public. </READING> well she didn't she sat on it all these years cuz she didn't know what to do with it. she gives it to Newman and tells him that what the Marquis wanted was for this to be made public. we worry about the good name of the Bellegardes he didn't worry about the good name of the Bellegardes he said <READING> expose my wife for the murderers, murderess that she is. </READING> you see and i think that's what he should've done i would've- i think he should've taken the letter to the police, and turned it over to them and said do with it what you want to but i- this woman, o- or her husband at least thinks this woman murdered him. here's the evidence, he has, there's s- we we, the whole s- situation is set up as if it's only a question of his revenge. can Newman use the letter to get his revenge? nobody ever asks the question, what about the justice to uh to the Marquis? mhm? 
S11: i think like not only that but i think Valentin wanted him to expose them too cuz he knew 
S1: yeah why he would tell him otherwise? 
S11: and by not yeah, and by not doing it like he kind of, destroyed Mrs Bread's and Valentin's and the old Marquis, not just the old Marquis and like if he w- didn't wanna do it himself he should've just told like Mrs Tristram, and the whole world would've found out. 
S1: i- th- that's true she'd've [S11: (there) ] spread the word. but i mean i i i would see this not as a moral matter, but as a legal matter. now he says to Mrs Bread later that she's beyond the reach of the law. but how does he know? he never tried. mhm? 
S12: that's what i was gonna say i thought the book had like kind of a, a, decent discussion about how, she would never be convicted. 
S1: and maybe she wouldn't. but it was that, was it Newman's judgment to make? in other words isn't he burning evidence of a crime, uh purely for his own, moral self-satisfact- as i say i think this is an illegitimate, consideration i've injected here because James doesn't make that really part of the calculus of the novel. but still when i was reading the novel i thought, hey wait a minute you know, [SU-F: mhm ] he owes something to this dead man who wrote this letter you know this dying letter, almost with his life's blood, uh saying uh uh i want i want this, crime to be known, you know i don't wanna just die... what, with no consequences. take this letter give it to the police. Newman has this letter in his possession he looks at it and says, oh, i would feel bad, i would feel bad, if i, used this letter you see uh uh, m- my moral character would suffer if i were to, in any way be s- be seen as getting (in there) i say screw that, gi- you know give the police the letter that's the way it should be done. 
S4: there's that conversation about slinging mud, which i thought was really interesting, and there really is no way i mean it's still true today there's no way to sling mud without getting your hands dirty. and so i mean even to go to the police 
S1: well but going to the police wouldn't be slinging mud would it? 
S4: mhm. 
S1: i b- i b- they what they don't have to know 
S4: it wa- he would he would be involved. 
S1: well all i can say is if i were in Newman's place i'd've gone to the police and said <S4 LAUGH> here here's a letter this crime was committed we believe, do with it what you will, maybe they'd do nothing but you've done what you could to see that ju- no one ever said should justice be done in this case but, James doesn't, you know that's outside the realm James doesn't even include that as a, well i think he briefly alludes to it. but that would so deflect from, the ideology, that he's trying to develop and i i do think that there's a kind of argument. let's not say ideology, argument the kind of argument that he's wanting to develop in this novel, would ha- simply have been, sidetracked and deflected, by that kind of consideration. he is wanting to make this, novel, he says the the light is always on Christopher Newman, so he's always wanting to know what, in Newman's character, would, his disposition of this letter reveal. and what he's wanting to do is give us the noblest gesture, of Newman's life, to s- show his superiority, to this world that condescends to him. that they are in fact o- morally compromised, and he's the one who emerges <P :05> sadly, perhaps even tragically, but nevertheless ennobled, by the events of the story. and and if we look at it then in terms of national characters, um, in a way the American triumphs over the French morally. you see the American values, insofar as Newman embodies them triumphs over the aristocratic value that, uh, which includes sort of this, hypocrisy and, double-dealing and subterfuge, uh of the world of uh of of, the Bellegardes and that's why i think that really his visit to the duchess, i- is a kind of reinforcement in that he sees that that, they would not ever condemn openly, for all the world to see one of their own. they wouldn't wash their dirty linen in public so they'd rather, in some way close ranks around a murderess, than they would in any way to have, the truth come out. so that it's not simply the Bellegardes i think that scene is put there in my opinion, uh in some way to show the the kind of, corruptness, (tha- uh uh) a sort of moral, what would you say? uh laxity, of, of their whole, class. which after all, going back to James for a s- pretends to a kind of moral superiority. what he's wanting to show is, that's a complete, counterfeit. does this make sense to you? mhm? 
S5: um i just actually had a quick question about that scene with the duchess. um, i'm l- trying to, find the page number so, i'm gonna keep talking as i look for it. but like, it seems like, in that s- in that like that scene, the point of view changes like really quick like to her point of view when she says she's gonna act charming, and then like she won't like speak to him again is that like, is that just our imagination- or is that like [S1: no ] (at the time) really just (xx) 
S1: no i i you know his his feeling is she receives him... but he doesn't r- he doesn't really matter to her she's in a way now ready to brush him off you know? b- uh um, he's had his few minutes with her and she's got other things to do and he, you know, um, th- that he that he sees that he doesn't he doesn't really count to them. particularly now that he's not going to marry Claire. he was kind of getting an entree into their world, now this is my interpretation of it, he wa- you know he m- to some degree he mattered at the ball when he was being introduced to all these important people because he was about to marry Claire. even then they were kind of looking at him like he's this, dancing bear, and they ha- they'll they have all these stories about him they said, uh is it true that you're the duke of California and uh, you give land away to people who agree not to smoke cigars and, and then there're all these sorts of crazy legends about, remember him when you read Gatsby there's an awful lot of Christopher Newman in Gatsby. the same love of opulence and, display and, wanting to marry a woman who's, (inex-) so, and so i've i've always thought that probably uh uh, Fitzgerald had had read The American, he certainly draw if he didn't draw from it they certainly are parallel in character, but uh, w- despite their interest in him, at the ball, he's still an alien, he's still a, a a, this curiosity. and, s- so when he comes to visit the duchess again, you know she receives him, she sees him, she's charming to him in her way, but he realizes uh and this is what im- he realizes that on her radar screen he doesn't really register. you see? he doesn't matter anymore in her world 
S5: yeah i understood that but what i was just, it was more like a stylistic question because i- i found it it's on page it's like at the very bottom of page four twenty-two. 
S1: four twenty-two? 
S5: and like yeah, and like, James writes <READING> he had come so reasoned the duchess </READING> and then like he puts a dash, and like does it change to her point of view for like a sentence? like <READING> heaven knew why he had come </READING> [S1: yeah ] s- after (what happened) 
S1: well i i think he's, he's uh that that's uh you're right that is an interesting stylistic device because, it's he's gonna give us the motive and then he kind of indicates, Newman wasn't quite sure why he did it. is that the- <READING> he had come s- uh so reasoned the duchess heaven knows why had come, after what had happened, and for </READING> i see you- that this may uh oh i i oh you're right. i'm sorry i was just reading it, that this is the duchess's mind not his (xx.) yeah. 
S5: yeah that's what i was wondering was it him or her? 
S1: therefore she would be charming, uh but she would never see him again. okay yeah you're you're right for a minute at least we are in the duchess's mind. i'll see him i'll see what he w- i'll see what he wants, i'll be charming to him, uh but he's not... he doesn't matter to me i you know i've always wondered if he pulled out the letter and read it what would have been her reaction? i'm always wanting to rewrite people's books for them, terrible fault, um, uh, but when he tries to broach anything she always has ways of what deflecting it, <READING> but then as the duchess went on relating a, (m- mo-) which her mother had uh snubbed the great Napoleon it occurred to Newman that her evasion, of a chapter of French history was more interesting to himself, might possibly, was more interesting to himself might possibly be the result of extreme consideration for his feelings, perhaps it was delicacy on the duchess's part not policy </READING> see the w- the the affair's been the not affair the engagement's been broken off, what's she to say to him? uh and so what he's trying to, convey i guess, is something like the sense that the duchess was trying to talk to him without really, saying anything? do you know those kind of conversations? [SU-M: yes ] where you talk to people and what you're really, concerned with doesn't get discussed is that what's going on here? hm? and he he realizes this is sort of exercising that Gallic uh finesse you know where, you just get shown out of the room and you realize, i never got to say what i came to_ or i never said what i meant to say, is that the situation here? uh i i i guess, as interesting as the scene is in itself and it is a very interesting scene, it's there probably to show that Newman, realizes to some degree the, complicity, of that whole class, in this kind of, corruption... is that right? i mean is it, uh what good would it have done to tell the duchess? what, what would she have done with that information? would she've immediately started calling all of her friends and saying we can never have the Bellegardes to dinner again they're murderesses? uh you know what what what do you_ and he says when he leaves why did i come here? what did i what did i think i was going to achieve? what did i expect? uh and in a sense there really was, not much <P :07> i i i don't know what, quite the word i'm searching for, uh, potential, i suppose (that,) of getting any satisfaction from telling the duchess. was he going to feel better? if he could somehow besmirch the, Bellegardes would he feel better? and he kind of comes away i guess thinking, not really, so a- already you may have a kind of uh uh foreshadowing of his later complete reje- burning of the letters. what am i gonna do with these letters? nothing. what can i do that would matter? nothing. why did i even think about it? i'm embarrassed, that i ever even considered (that so.) although i'm a little bit bothered by the fact that, James can't quite decide whether it's a purely, noble, generous decision on, Newman's part or if it's just a practical consideration. it has nothing to do with the letters. i- y- you know there's no way to, to get the kind of revenge i want. i don't think he means i don't think James means to do the la- the latter i think he very much means to do the former, which is to make Newman's gesture seem all the more, noble, generous, forgiving, the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance, that's what he wants to concentrate on. but he does complicate it a little bit by showing in, some of these other scenes that, practically how would he get any, revenge? 
S10: um could the end also be a contrast? because it seems like, throughout the majority of the novel, um Newman's built up, you know like his character's built up and you know, he's so persistent and so strong and so invincible, that, maybe at the end, he's presenting a contrast? like i remember reading on four-thirty-eight um, you know, he's talking about h- he had no desire to make acquaintances and, you know, he thought a great deal of Madame de Cintre, he lived over and over again the happiest hours he had known, um he starts to think <READING> he asked himself in his quieter hours whether perhaps after all he was, more commercial than was pleasant </READING> i think that he's um, like in retrospect i think he's thinking about a lot of things that he, may not have had to think about before, like in his solitude and in his um [S1: yes, yes ] i i still feel that he's, to a certain extent, tired or a little bit, down 
S1: oh he is, yeah. yeah he is. 
S10: you know i don't think it's, like a you know carrying the flag, up to the mountain and 
S1: i see your point yeah. no [S10: (xx) strength ] you're absolutely right in fact, uh, thi- uh this is a very Jamesean, denouement too in this sense, that Newman who's always been a a a a practical go-getter, a doer, you know, if there's a problem, you grab it and you solve it this is what he's always saying to Valentin. you've gotta take, you know you've gotta take hold of life you've gotta grab it and and do things and make things happen you don't just you know let things happen to you, so you can see that Newman had always been that kind of uh, dr- driving, uh aggressive sort of figure you know, if there's a problem in the world you slap it around and get it into shape and take charge, and now for the first time he realizes, perhaps, this is gonna sound a little pretentious, but sort of the tragic dimension of life, that there're things you can't, control, there're things that lie beyond your ability to, to change, uh and, uh then that he he he he's a different man at the end, i think he is noble, you know and certainly James is wanting to say, if you're contrasting these two societies these two characters, surely surely we would agree i think the American emerges as the, the better the nobler, you know the the the victory goes in that sen- in the moral sense clearly to the American. but at the same time that sort of American belief that every problem has a solution, the can-do attitude what's the C-B's motto you know sort of the can-do, uh that that uh, that that's shown, to be an illusion, to some e- and that in a way, Newman has met the complexity, of the old world all the subtlety and intricacy, and to a degree he's been defeated by that, in that sense that that the world is a much more, complex... and confining, you know he he one of the w- interesting questions that i always say where would he and Claire have gone to live, if they had gotten married? where would th- where would they belong? and he sort of says to her we have the whole world to choose from you know we could go anywhere we can do anything, that notion that you've got all sorts of possibilities, and Claire is sort of well, you know is that, is everything really possible? you know, to her European sensibility his American optimism seems to be really over, generous. 
S13: well perhaps also um, Newman's aggressiveness always came from his self-interest. he always has something to gain by his, solving problems and in this case, he really has nothing left to gain from the situation, [S1: that's right. ] he's not acting for the higher noble cause of exposing French aristocracy but rather, it's just you know he wanted to find a wife well he can't do that now he wanted to, learn, of the higher you know learn about this higher society and he doesn't like what he sees so there's really, no motivation for him, to continue with his actions (xx.) 
S1: that's that's true but, i- u- um, i- we b- we may be saying in a way the same thing in sort of different ways. when he has the letter h- first he wants to use it. you know. h- i've got this letter, he has a sort of aggressive attitude, i've gotta, do something with it. so first he thinks he can get Claire back, that's his original plan, he thinks he can, he can in a sense sort of leverage Claire out of the Be- Bellegarde's, grip with this letter. he finds out, she's at the convent, that's over, so there's no practical, use in that. he's still got the idea okay, you know maybe i can't get her back but i certainly can, in some way pay them back for what they did to me so he think- that's his next line of attack, he's starts to do that, but then he realizes this thinks, so what? so that in one way he he's left with that sense of uh of, no more possibilities, there's nothing to do. if you're a doer all your life, you know, and suddenly you're faced with a situation where there's nothing for you, to do there's nothing you can do... it must be a really maturing sort of insight and a very in some ways a very depressing one you know. are there things in the world, i can't change, i- you know i i have to face this and there's nothing i can do about it. and so in one way i think James would say, that Newman has learned that lesson, uh and, i don't mean to make this altogether nationalistic, but i think he's saying in some way it's the naive American who thinks everything is possible, coming into this, contact with Europeans who are much more, aware of or accepting of, the limitations of life. you know again going back to, to Valentin. Valentin is saying to him, you're so lucky. you've got the whole world you can go out and do anything and he says to so could you. and Valentin says no you don't understand, i have a position in life that in a way, traps me or limits me. uh, there're all sorts of things i can't do. there're many things i can't do, most things i can't do. and Newman says ah come to America with me. if we go to America, you have all these possibilities you know i'll put you in a bank, you could make some money. and Valentin says, that sounds good. but but on the other hand the reality of his situation is that he's much more confined, much more limited. um and so again to kind of reduce this to nationalistic, attitudes, the Americans are more optimistic they see everything as possible, why not? let's try it you know, if you haven't tried it how do you know you can't do it? so that that you know sort of pushing can-do attitude, on the other hand, we think of the European attitude as being much more, we've lived longer, we've seen more, we know what the limitations are, we accept them, uh and so in a way you could say that New- Newman is almost Europeanized, by his, experience, into the limits, the limitations of life and sort of the tragic dimensions of life. but as is often the ca- i don't i don't want to say The American is a tragedy that's too, grandiose but that in a way as in tragedies, out of the suffering the hero learns something, uh and so he learns a kind of uh, chastened, nobility. his his, original good nature, and generosity, uh is in a some sense refined, uh by the, b- by the experience that he has in Europe. um, uh so he he's a sadder but wiser man, at the end, would we agree on that? but he i just wanna th- i- i don't mean to overstress this point but i just wanted to say what's in some ways so surprising is that if there is, some... battle, going on some contest, going on between what it is the Bellegardes represent and what it is that Newman represents, there's no question, whatever it is that Newman represents emerges from this novel as, the morally... superior, element, s- uh the uh, if it's a clash of, class and money, we often think uh, Newman only represents money. and the the Bellegardes class in the sense of status and so on but uh the there is a sense in which James is kind of subverting those categories, and that that uh the real nobleman of this novel is, Newman i think um, Newman. well what else do we wanna say about the novel? Jean do you have a, comment or a question? 
S6: i'm just you know i- i'm for the noblemen though. <LAUGH> i mean there's there's still a comment that and and Mrs Tristram's character i find [S1: yeah. yes, very ] so interesting too, because she travels through two worlds like James does. [S1: she does ] and you know i don't know what her underhanded motives are necessarily, for getting him started on this journey [S1: yeah ] to begin with and they're, they're obviously, not single-minded necessarily on her part 
S1: and they talk about that right at the end where he says to her, why did you ever, start this in the first place? was it just, curiosity on your part? and she says uh what? do you remember this? uh, can we get it's very very near the end uh, it's an interesting passage uh, four-twenty-eight. he says to her <READING> was it cur- curiosity that you urged me to try and marry her? a little said Mrs Tristram growing still more audacious. Newman gave her the one angry look he had been destined ever to give her, turned away and took up his hat she watched him for a moment and then she said that sounds very cruel, but it is less so than it sounds curiosity has a share in almost every thing i do. i wanted very much to see first whether such a marriage could actually take place, and second, what would happen, if it should take place. so you didn't believe, said Newman resentfully. yes i believed i believed it would take place and that you would be happy. otherwise i should have uh, been among my speculations a very heartless creature but, she continued laying her hand upon Newman's arm and hazarding a grave smile it was the highest flight, ever taken by a tolerably bold imagination </READING> uh i thought she could pull it off but it was the most audacious or the most daring idea i ever had. (xx) could, but i thought you could, mhm? 
S14: it kinda seemed like she did it for like her own like entertainment. [S1: yeah. ] like just to like sit back and watch the soap opera unfold and [S1: yeah. ] what's gonna happen so 
S1: exactly. [S14: i don't think (xx) ] 
S1: that's what she means by curiosity i just wanted to see what would happen. 
S14: i don't think that's a good enough reason. <SS LAUGH>
S1: yeah. James, the James's fiction is full of people like this. uh i think the greatest of all James novels although, obviously (xx) is Portrait of a Lady. and in it uh, a young man, Ralph Tuchett, manages for his cousin Isabel Archer to inherit a lot of money, a great deal of money, because he says he wanted to see what would happen, to her, in the world if she had, wings to fly anywhere. this money's gonna free her he thinks. give her all this money, i just wanna see what would happen to her. do you do you remember that old show, the the Millionaire? not Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, it used to be, the guy who would go around and give people a million dollars. someone would show up and knock on your door millionaire and say Jean what Tipton Thomas something Ja- well anyway. uh he and, because he just wanted to see, what would this person do if you said they had a million dollars what would this person do? and of course a lot of times the stories were terrible. tha- you know awful things would happen. but they were just satisfying their curios- so Ralph Tuchett in Portrait of a Lady, just wants to see, what will happen to my cousin, if she's suddenly made extremely wealthy? you see, and, pretty awful things happen to her, uh and to some degree that's what's true of Mrs Tristram here. i just wanna see. you remember when he goes to her and tells her about the party he's planning she says uh it's uh what's her first word? odious. it's delicious. you see? it's a terrible party to give. i love it. you you so you know her kind of character don't you? she just likes to see, in a way she likes to cause trouble or you know just, uh, throw the golden apple in the midst of all the people and see how they're gonna fight over it. so yeah i think that she's a she's a fascinating character as a kind of a obser- and if you wanna make it psychological you could say she's bored, you know her husband's a dimwit, she has nothing else to do, so why not just, arrange people's lives, meddle a little, see if i can't cause some, excitement hm? uh uh James says as i say this often, catalyst sort of character who looks and says let's see what will happen if we do such and such. Jean did you have a? 
S6: i don't know i i was just trying to i wish i could've found the spot then, i mean i, i sorta wanna discount her now, when she talks about how aristocratic it was for the Bellegardes to, you know g- get rid of him in spite of the money that they wanted 
S1: yeah yeah yeah no you no you you she said it wa- they gave you up for an ideal [S6: mhm ] she says. that really a- she says that really was aristocratic. that they would, sacrifice all this money, for a you know, for a principle. uh and that you know if you believe that then you would say yeah they really_ uh is that, uh they they had in effect lived up, to their principle they were about to sell out, but at the last moment the Marquis says i could not reconcile myself to a commercial person. we just, we tried to swallow it and we just couldn't. we gagged. a- and so that in some way you could say she was really acting out of principle. on the other hand, when Lord Deepmere, comes to the ball that night isn't she, trying to get him, to court, Claire right under her fiance's nose? uh, you know the very night that their engagement is being announced the mother's over there saying to somebody else, i take it that's what they're talking about, um, and Lord Deepmere has no great interest in Claire, but he's v- filthy rich, and so the mother is the one who's, behind the scenes trying to, sabotage this engagement, and maybe get Lord Deepmere to 
S6: but was it you know, there was a comment made that she maybe she did she do this, well he was getting at revenge but, wasn't the final straw where she had to escort him [S1: yes ] around to meet her friends anyway? i mean she was already at that point, 
S1: yeah, at the end of her, yeah 
S6: w- sh- i think without yeah Deepmere whatever his- i couldn't remember th- on your factoid either, um <SS LAUGH> i mean she was gonna give him up, i mean, [S1: yeah ] they were gonna, (xx) 
S1: well, that that night uh h- p- he put_ and he kind of knows he's doing this too Newman kind of, you know knows that he's pushing this to the limit. he says take my arm and let's walk, you know so that they kind of do a, h- it's like a victory lap for him. you see, this is the he says this is the greatest night of his life. he's now reached the pinnacle. poor boy, lived on the streets, made his money for himself, climbed the ladder, to him now if what he's after is status, this is it. you see, all of these French aristocrats gathered together, he's nabbed the daughter you know he's he's he's got the prize, and now he makes the mother kind_ who's really in some way the one he's defeated, if you see this as a contest, you know, he's he's bought from them, his money has, trumped their, status. and that this, this kind of victory lap around the room with the old Marquis on his arm is is is, he's showing off. and it's a- i- th- there's a there's a scene it's kind of a little far-fetched, but there's a scene in uh Agamemnon where, uh the the wife is wanting to destroy her husband, persuades him to walk on the purple carpet, that's, sort of reserved for the gods you know, and i- it's it's it's, that moment where his hubris his his, what, pride in himself, is, pushed to the extreme, and so that that that scene's been this scene has been compared to something like that that Newman just pushes it so far, and that perhaps it's at that moment when the duch- where the uh Marquis realizes, as much as we'd like to get our hands on all that money, uh, we can't swallow it. you know so that the next it's not the next day but it's a few days after he comes and that's when she says, i've told my daughter she must break off her engagement. um and i love that line i cannot reconcile myself to a commercial person, you know somebody who used to make washtubs, uh so that that you can see okay that that i- they are in a way living up to their aristocratic ideal, although it is undermined a little bit if you think, she's got Lord Deepmere waiting in the wings so she can dump this guy and still marry her daughter, but there's no great clear indication that Lord Deepmere has any interest in Claire. and indeed, um, it's very interesting i think that we see him again at the end, this is the answer to the question i asked you today did you all get it? with uh Neo- Noemie Nioche, who's this courtesan now he's obviously taken her up she's there as his, what would you say these days, squeeze? uh and they're uh uh her father always said so you know, if my daughter dishonors our name if she becomes a fallen woman someday i'll shoot her, and Newman says, i kept looking in the newspapers but i never saw any, <LAUGH> news story that he'd shot her, so but the_ i think the reason for including that scene at the end is to show that Lord Deepmere whose cousin in a sense she's, whose death uh uh she's responsible for, uh has nevertheless taken up with her he's forgotten, eh Valentin you know, that was then this is now, and she's a real good lay, uh and so their you know their, uh this kind of corruption their keeping company, at that uh, at that, stage, is again i think showing something of the uh uh, uh... what would you say, selling out, uh that the aristocrats are willing to do, for for, Deepmere to have taken as his mistress this woman who's implicated in his cousin's death. uh and and he's embarrassed by it he kinda, you know he he tries to explain it away to Newman, but uh the very fact that he's embarrassed by it, shows that he's having to rationalize, uh a choice that's... questionable, to put it (mildly.) well anything else about The, American that we wanna, touch on...? well lemme shift gears for a few minutes then uh to, prep you for uh, what we'll do next week. um, if James was a little bit too, rarified for you, did i ever quote to you that wonderful line of Clover Hooper's? Clover Hooper was a very witty woman married to, Henry Adams who was one of the great American intellectuals, and she knew all the famous people of her day, and she had one of the, best comments about Henry James, and his novel she said it's not that Henry bit off more than he could chew, but that he chewed more than he bit off, uh and a lot of readers sort of feel that way, James does go on, uh and it, it gets more, elaborate the older he got where he could uh, H-G Wells once did a parody of James where, he imagines this great cathedral with, stained glass windows and the organ playing and, this huge edifice, and you get toward the altar and there on the altar you see, a dead cat, a bit of string, that a- that all of this whole elaborate edifice is built up for this kind of you know, very minor little payoff. and so there are readers who have felt that way about James's, you know, overelaborateness and oversophistication, too many nuances and this sort of thing, uh and, The American by contrast is quite, for James quite a simple novel an early, uh kind of, straightforward sort of novel compared to, what he did later, but i- in any case uh if uh you've had enough James to, satiate you for a while, <SU-F LAUGH> uh you'll see Jack London who we'll look at next is a very very different kind of writer. James as i suggested to you was from, the old money, uh, you know Cambridge, Newport set um, who spent most of his life, in in Europe anyway, um, but, insofar as he is an American was very much part of that eastern seaboard Eurocentric, um, class. Jack London, uh was the illegitimate child of uh uh, a fortune teller, uh and uh an itinerant, spiritualist, uh his mother when she was six months pregnant married a different man who was named London, also John London, and so that Jack had th- this man's name all of his life, but he found uh early in his twenties that that the man he had thought was his father really wasn't and uh he, as, people in that situation often do, went looking for his real father who, who was really just a kind of con artist a charlatan, (that sort of thing,) uh, they were very poor his whole life uh or, in his childhood his parents were very poor, living sort of hand-to-mouth, um, and London belonged not so much to the working class as to what, Marx would call the the lumpin proletariat, uh the class below the working class, um the the sort of unemployed uh uh what, semicriminal class uh at a very early age Jack London was uh uh, an oyster pirate, which meant that used to go around at night stealing the catches from other men's boats, the oyster fishermen who'd gone out and caught their catch, would dock overnight and and London and, his compatriots would, rob them, uh of their catch uh uh, um but, um and that that th- that was i guess his earliest job, was to be a thief, uh he was a hobo uh joined uh something called Cox's army that was gonna march on Washington, except he and some of the other guys went ahead of it and claimed they were gathering up uh, supplies for them and <LAUGH> would run off with the food they had, um, spent some time in jail in uh Niagara Falls New York uh for vagrancy, um so that he had, you know, here was Henry James going to Harvard and... spending his days in the Louvre, here's Jack London hoboing it spending his time in the, Niagara Falls jail. uh he went to uh Alaska in the gold rush and, prospected for gold, uh all of this before he was twenty-one. uh he had uh well London died, uh when he was forty-one having written fifty books. that always astounds me i i kind of, wanna blot it out. um, but uh that old uh p- saying live fast die young leave a good-looking corpse, uh was pretty much the, credo that London lived by. uh a- and uh, h- the novel then that we'll read uh of London's Martin Eden, is uh, highly autobiographical not totally so, this whole question of uh autobiographical novels is a very tangled tortured one, uh but in its broad outlines, the story of Martin Eden and the story of Jack London, up to a certain point, uh, run remarkably parallel, so that what we're going to uh, get, in some ways for the first time, is the Horatio Alger story told from the inside. uh clearly uh, Horatio Alger's telling us the story of Ragged Dick is really told by, an adult, who is trying to imagine what it was like, being this street kid, but in some ways really giving uh uh, Dick, the perspective and the motives of an adult, uh, he very quick you know almost overnight, Dick suddenly gets converted to, what? cleaning himself up, going straight, uh working hard, banking his money th- th- those are not the f- fourteen-year-old attitudes would you agree with me on that? and th- v- very in a sense very much Alger makes Dick a kind of, premature adult, so that he can teach thrift and hard work and provi- uh uh providence and, that sort of thing. uh and uh then when, uh Henry James takes the same kind of character, he passes over it so quickly, there are those few pages in which we have, uh Newman's childhood and, his, making himself a millionaire, but James really had no knowledge of that, no first-hand knowledge of that, and so he gets it, you know, over with in, very short order and just sort of, decrease it, that's gonna be the given of the story, uh here we have this self-made millionaire, where do we see him, we see him sitting in the Louvre looking at art, that's where the story opens and everything before that, is is very very lightly, sketched, because James had no idea at all what it was like to have been, uh a poor kid, you know, living hand-to-mouth sleeping in a box on the street. London did, London is going to write now uh from the perspective of someone who's been down and out, what he called in the abyss. he decided in fact one day when he was, i think when he was sitting in jail, two things can happen to me i can, what can happen to me is what happened to all the people around me, they're losers, they're in this pit, the abyss, they're never gonna climb out, they're gonna be victims all their life, uh, you can i can accept that or, he says uh i can find some way out of this, uh and i don't want it to be manual labor, that's no way out, it has to be intellectual labor so London just sort of said to himself one day i'm bright, i can i can think my way out of the abyss, and indeed he does. so what we're gonna uh Martin Eden is then, that very personalized account of uh, uh of this, climb, out of the abyss, off livi- off living in the in the streets to uh, well you'll see to what. uh there're some things in Martin Eden that will seem, improbable, as there were in in Ragged Dick, the only difference is, they happened to London. so that uh uh, when the cards start falling in in uh uh, Martin Eden's direction uh or in his favor um, that's almost exactly what happened to to London. so from being this, poor, obscure uh, nobody to almost overnight fame and fortune was, exactly what had happened, uh to uh Jack London. so there're things i'll try to fill in for you uh uh, that i think help in comparing the uh the life and the work, uh since i haven't given you a writing assignment for, uh... to take home with you, today, you can assume then that you're gonna have one in class, next time, uh and if you want a hint, i'm about to give you one, uh, think, laundry... that's my hint. think, laundry. so, i think you'll see what i mean. okay. 
S2: mine, yours. 
S1: okay, very good very good. 
{END OF TRANSCRIPT}

