Henry James's "Poor Sensitive Gentlemen" and the Quest for Meaning (and Happiness) in Three Late Tales: "The Altar of the Dead," "The Beast in the Jungle," and "The Jolly Corner"

Authors

Phyllis E. VanSlyck, CUNY LaGuardia Community CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2022

Abstract

“Happiness” is not an emotion we immediately associate with the life of Henry James or with the characters in his fiction. It is true that some of his characters comment on the idea of happiness, but not without persistent irony. The protagonists of James’s late tales express no explicit interest in happiness; however, their desire to understand their journeys results in an important insight into the complex, and perhaps contradictory, nature of personal fulfillment. It is an experience, I argue, that offers a moment of painful joy, and it is the closest thing to happiness possible for James’s characters, and perhaps for Henry James.

Comments

Originally published in: The Henry James Review, Vol. 43, no. 3, Fall 2022, pp. 252-267