Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘The Art of Fiction’ is a critical essay by Henry James that was published in Longman’s Magazine in 1884. It was a part of the ongoing debate on the art of fiction between four writers, William Dean Howells, Sir William Besant, Henry James, and R. L. Stevenson. In 1884, Sir William Besant gave a lecture titled “Fiction as One of Fine Arts.” In his lecture, Sir Walter Besant asserted that the main purpose of literature is to carry a moral criterion. Henry James countered that argument and claimed that a novel is an impression of life, which in turn is an imprint left on one’s mind. Thus, James preferred describing not an event, but someone's impression of it. Henry James gave impetus to the movement of literary Realism and claimed, “No good novel will ever proceed from a superficial mind.”
Background of The Art of Fiction:
William Dean Howell was the first to use the phrase ‘the Art of Fiction’ in a statement saying, “The art of fiction has, in fact, become a finer art in our day than it was with Dickens and Thackeray.” That began a debate that Henry James politely called the ‘era of discussion.’ In 1884, Sir William Besant offered his lecture ‘Fiction as One of Fine Arts’ that gave chances for others to raise the issue of the importance of novels as a genuine literary genre. Besant’s ethical views of writing fiction inspired many of his contemporary fiction writers, critics, and reviewers. Henry James’s “The Art of Fiction” is one of the parts of that debate. It presents realism as a great tool to express what James called an “impression of life.” James defined a novel as ‘a personal direct impression of life, the value depending upon the intensity of impressions and it must have freedom to feel and say.’ He wrote an essay discussing the ongoing debate in 1984 in which he first thanked Mr. Walter Besant for setting up a meaningful debate on the theory of novel as an art. However, he emphasized the importance of the freedom of “author’s art of execution.” He wanted to see novelistic art free from classical strains. James also opposed Besant’s idea that fiction should have a conscious moral purpose. He says how novels being a picture can be moral or immoral. He says it has not a purpose but diffidence. He has a fascination for the rich subject but he also says that an artist has not to rule out or reject the unpleasant, ugly, and disagreeable experiences. Instead of writing the social, the external, and the outward, Henry James preferred to write psychological novels. Henry James believed that the novel is all pictures, the most comprehensive and the most elastic. It will stretch anywhere and it could include anything, the subject being the whole human consciousness. James believes in the fullest freedom of mankind and the liberty of mind and desires a novel not to be tethered to rules and restrictions.
Summary of The Art of Fiction:
Henry James based his essay ‘Art of Fiction’ on three basic points which are-
1) "Fiction is an Art in every way worthy to be called the sister and the equal of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture, Music, and Poetry." This suggests that fiction, like all other arts, is limitless.
2) "That it is an Art which, like them, is governed and directed by general laws; and that these laws may be laid down and taught with as much precision and exactness as the laws of harmony, perspective, and proportion." Henry James directly opposed Besant’s claim that rules are necessary, or even possible, to guide any form of art.
3) "Fiction is so far removed from the mere mechanical arts, that no laws or rules whatever can teach it to those who have not already been endowed with the natural and necessary gifts." James stressed that, unlike other mechanical art forms, one cannot learn how to write a good novel by merely studying the supposed rules of writing a novel and practicing them. He stressed that natural talent is required to excel in writing fiction and that rules are fine to guide but cannot replace natural talent if it doesn't exist.
James states that there was no idea printed or documented that could circulate the knowledge of the creation of fiction, and could declare rules and methods of reading, understanding, and writing fiction. He states that fiction “had no air of having a theory, a conviction, a consciousness of itself behind it – of being the expression of an artistic faith, the result of choice and comparison.”
Besant, in his lecture, tried to limit what an author can experience by dictating that one must write from experience. James agreed with Mr. Besant’s suggestion that a novelist must write from his own experience, his characters must be real as met in actual life. However, James said that `experience’ does not mean war, battle, upheaval, revolt, revolution, invasion or aggression. It is never-ending and is all around. But it all depends on upon the imaginative sensibility and the fertility of the novelist's mind. If experience consists of impressions, it may be said that impressions are experience. In the same way, `adventure’ or `incident’ does not necessarily mean some hair-raising incident but it may be apparently a little happening. Henry James said that writers should write what they know but this does not pigeonhole them into only writing about what they have done from their own perspective. Instead, writers are a collection of their own experiences, varied and complicated, and so their works can hold many facets of the world and still be true to the authors' own experiences. The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implication of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern, the condition of feeling life, in general, so completely that you are well on your way to knowing any particular corner of it—this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience, and they occur in country and in town, and in the most differing stages of education.
Another point that Mr. Besant raised was about the clarity of the characters. He said that characters of a fiction or novel should be clearly illustrated and offered a list of rules that define clear illustration. Mr. Besant says that a novelist must write from his own experience, his characters must be real as met in actual life. Henry James agreed that characters must be understandable and relatable, but instead of suggesting that this requires a description of a character's facial hair, he argues that there are myriad ways to describe a character that will make them believable to an audience. He says that reality has `a myriad forms’ – literal, physical, external, psychological or emotional and a novelist has all freedom to express his characters in any of those forms.
Mer. Besant stressed that the story of fiction must have a moral principle. James opposed this restraint and said that a story must be interesting and that a set of rules dictating what constitutes a moral storyline removes the art from the story. A true artist will not be able to create an interesting story without imbibing morals into it. James differentiated novels as interesting and uninteresting novels. The interesting novels untie the unseen realities contained in the experience. A typical selection, an inclusive selection, of incidents exposes the impression of life. In that sense, the novel competes with life. The interesting novels are products of a mind that is far from sophisticated artistry, and near to a “conscious increase of freedom”, to a skill to know the taste of contemporary readers that may expose the world. James suggested that the author should be granted his ‘subject’, the form of which ‘is to be appreciated after the fact.’ If the reader dislikes the subject, then the novel can be abandoned. The measure of a novel’s success is that of how the subject is treated; whether it develops organically, that is, like a seed into a plant, from the center of its chosen subject.
The novel, for both the writer and the reader, is the road not to moral principles, but to the moral sense; and where the novelist is intelligent, the novel will offer an experience that has the potential to shape and develop the reader’s own intelligence. The novel is ‘the great extension, great beyond all others, of experience and of consciousness.’
In his essay, Henry James suggested writers stay true to themselves and their vision and worry less about following rules and more about creating art. He suggests they do what feels, looks, and sounds real rather than what feels, looks, or sounds right. Novels should not transmit moral principles and rules as such, but renovate and develop the mind by attempting to engage the reader in the pursuit of intricate combinations of form, content, and germinating subjects. There is no “conscious moral purpose” of an author to moralize, or to preach to the readers. Henry James emphasized that the perfection of the novel depends on the liberty of an author and his art of execution. The perfection of art is itself the most interesting purpose.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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