A sufferable snob – The Complete Letters of Henry James

newcriterion.com

3 points·ableal··5 comments

Just as a note, I submitted this as 'But who will visit it? – The Complete Letters of Henry James', because that question, taken from the tail end of the piece, is actually more interesting than James himself.

Embarking on the publishing of 140 (one hundred and forty) volumes of the letters of a middling literary figure is perhaps a sign of how much leisure we have. Veblen would smile.

Now, if they could get around to important Nobel prize winning writers, like Pearl S. Buck ...

My irony detector does not function well on Monday mornings. You are serious in considering Henry James a middling literary figure, Pearl Buck an important one, and the Nobel a sound measure of literary achievement?

I'll cop to pulling your leg on the last two items.

Naughty you. I confess that a) I have never been able to fight my way through The Golden Bowl or The Wings of the Dove, and that b) I can't imagine that life, let only leisure, is long enough for 140 volumes of Henry James's letter. Also, I wonder who in the world one would impress by reading them.

It's kind of terrifying. Perhaps the no-death guys would be up for it: "Here you go - eternal life. But first you have to read all 140 volumes of Henry James letters. There will be a quiz."

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