Book description
'You must paint her just like that ... as the Tragic Muse' Suggests one
of James's characters to Nick Dormer, the young Englishman who, during
the course of the novel, will courageously resist the glittering
Parliamentary career desired for him by his family, in order to paint.
His progress is counterpointed by the 'Tragic Muse' of the title, Miriam
Rooth, one of James's most fierily beautiful creations, a great actress
indifferent to social reputation, and triumphantly dedicated to her art.
In portraying the conflict between art and 'the world' which is his
novel's central idea, James engaged obliquely with current debates on
the new aestheticism of Pater and Wilde and on the nature of the actor's
performance. Through the living complexity of his protagonists he
reveals how much, as Philip Horne puts it, 'to take art seriously as an
end in itself ... is still a provocative course'. Henry James
(1843-1916) was born in New York and settled in Europe in 1875. He was a
regular contributor of reviews, critical essays, and short stories to
American periodicals. He is best known for his many novels of American
and European character.
