More on James

Did anyone read the author's preface to Portrait? Very helpful as to what he was doing with our main character... that is, conceiving of her character entirely outside of any plot, inventing situations and complications which would best bring out their personality.  He goes on to say that the readier completes the meaning--calls it "boundless freedom." Can anyone make out what he is trying to say about Henrietta?

Also, if you get the chance read his essay "The Art of Fiction" Here is a quick summery:
 http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/artfictionnotes.htm
or if you want the whole thing:
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/artfiction.html


Some pages sent to me by a friend from a book called The Achievement of T.S. Eliot, tell why Eliot admired James so much. TS Eliot called James "the most intelligent man of his generation"

Also he was "fascinated by the way in which James did not simply relate but make the reader co-operate."

Eliot also "precieved that James cannot be understood without Hawthorne" Really!!

 "All three are mainly concerned with what lies behind action and beneath appearance. In their effort to find the exact situation that will evoke an impression of the inner life, they are occupied too in expressing like states of mind and feeling."
...this is interesting, but I don't know Eliot enough to comment on this...

"That the essential strain common to them both was their indifference to religious dogma at the same time as their exceptional awareness of spiritual reality--that is their profound sensitivity to good and evil, their power to convey horror."   Hmmm...yes...ok, so here is our spiritual element...good and evil...but somehow no God....?  Once converted, I assume that here Eliot departs from James. The book goes on to say Eliot "could not lie in Hawthorn's or James's awareness of spiritual reality with an indifference to dogma. He needed to find something in which him mind as well as his emotions could rest."

Sorry about the smattering of thoughts. If anyone can make sense of them, your response would be welcome...