Conjecture on the Failure of Henry James as a Dramatist
Henry James was a very complex personality. In consequence, his career shows many facets. Only a few of these facets, however, are familiar to the reading public; and among these brightly shining points of this literary star is one which glimmers but faintly--his attempt to write drama.|There were those who acclaimed Henry James in his own day; and in the present century ever-increasing numbers of admirers, though still not large, attest to the excellence of his fiction and critical essays. But at no time has he been recognized as a playwright, a distinction which he craved, because here failure visited him repeatedly.|The many intricate factors in Henry James*s personality, upbringing and general environment which contributed to his artistic success also contributed to his dramatic failure. To understand, even superficially, this nonsuccess, we must first examine the interrelation of assets and liabilities in his personality growth, and subsequently analyze his merits and shortcomings as a writer of prose fiction. Then, and then only, can we prove the causes of his miscarriage in the theatre(sic).|Even so, the most that any critic, howsoever shrewd and skillful, can hope to attain is a series of conjectures . A search for these conjectures is the raison d'etre of the following essay.
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