The Art of Criticism: HENRY JAMES ON THE THEORY AND THE PRACTICE OF FICTION by Henry James; edited by William Veeder and Susan M. Griffin; (University of Chicago: $45, hardcover; $14.95, paperback; 502 pp.)

Back in the 1960s, when an ambitious and talented group of “postmodern” writers were calling for fresh approaches to the art of fiction, Henry James (the “godfather” of novelist criticism) was an obvious target for attack. James was accused of being “fussy” and “prudish,” his definition of realism was “old fashioned,” his approach to aesthetics and culture was “elitist” and “conservative.” This was all very convenient: Father figures need to be ritually ridiculed, slain, dismembered. But as this judicious selection of James’ best essays on writing and culture demonstrates, sometimes we discover that our father figures weren’t nearly as old-fashioned and narrow-minded as we had assumed.

When James began writing criticism in the last quarter of the 19th Century, the novel had been around for nearly two centuries (even longer if we trace its origins to “Don Quixote”), and it had already produced a body of work rich in stylistic and thematic diversity. Strangely lacking, however, was a systematic theory of the novel which could articulate the defining features of this new form, supply a rationale for its emerging prominence as the central art form of its day, and decisively influence the direction the genre would take. The critical books, essays and reviews written by James during a career that spanned nearly 50 years provided precisely such a theory.

This new edition of James’ critical works--skillfully edited and annotated by Veeder and Griffin, who frame each selection with commentaries and biographical, bibliographical and critical background--demonstrates how very fortunate fiction was to have James around at this crucial junction in its history. James brought to novelistic criticism the same intelligence, refinement, and penetrating analytical skills evident in his fiction; these skills, combined with his ability to draw analogies from other art forms, identify significant trends, and develop cogent close textual readings, allowed James to explore the aesthetics of good fiction-writing with more depth and rigor than anyone before him.

These aspects of James’ contribution to the evolution of the novel are familiar enough. But what seems most impressive today about his criticism--especially in light of the spirited aesthetic debates conducted under the name of “postmodernism”--is how thoroughly “contemporary” so many of James’ central premises appear. In particular, I’m referring to James’ awareness that all texts inevitably reflect the consciousness of the author as much as the world outside this consciousness; his awareness that “realism” evolves out of a specific world view (and hence that “realism” must be a flexible notion); his grasp of the enormous importance of the “comprehensiveness” of the novel (and of how easily this quality could be co-opted and misused by a mass-market mentality); and his unwavering insistence that the novel’s vitality, its very soul, depended upon its freedom to explore any issue through whatever formal means were most suitable.

James’ early essays reveal a vigorous and generous critical temperament busy shaping its own critical standards and already grappling with the complex differences between European and American culture and aesthetics. We also see (in essays on Matthew Arnold and Sainte-Beuve) James formulating his ideals of “disinterestedness” and the free play of mind--ideals which would be central to all his later work. These “practical” pieces suggest a mind captivated by French rationalism, but, more subtlely, they indicate a sensibility guided as much by feeling and a concern for socio-political issues as by abstract principles.

In the second phase of James’ career, we see him moving away from textual interpretation to explore fiction and culture more theoretically. At least two of these essays--”The Art of Fiction” and “The Future of the Novel”--have had an ongoing impact on the way novelists relate to their craft. Polemical, even angry in tone, both essays boldly attack the “timidity” of most authors who pander to a public’s desire for simplistic morals and story lines, happy endings, easy solutions; both espouse experimental formal methods capable of rendering the ambiguities and psychological nuances of the actual world. The novelist world at the end of the 19th Century was already dominated by commercial demands and by an orthodoxy outraged by writers attacking its standards and deceptions. James responds by defining the “art” of fiction as being interrelated with its freedom to pursue the truth, no matter where this pursuit might lead.

Specifically, James insists that since “love making,” or human sexuality, lies at the center of human existence, it must be explored openly and vigorously. James argues that to impose on fiction a standard of “morality” based on what is fit for the ears of young people is ludicrous, for it insures that writers will be unable to explore their craft with the spirit of daring and openness that are essential to probing the world and ourselves deeply and honestly.

What makes “The Art of Criticism” especially useful is that it brings together for the first time the major critical essays--all reprinted here in full except for an excerpt from his book on Hawthorne--in a single volume (until recently copyright restrictions had prevented his commentaries on fiction to be collected). By carefully selecting pieces which both represent his best work and the full range of James’ versatility, Veeder and Griffin provide readers with the chance to observe the significant changes and continuities in James’ views.

Equally fascinating is watching James experiment with the essay form itself; gradually his sentences become denser, his arguments proceed as much from image as by logic, the usually static essay form becomes at once more convoluted as more flexible--all this in an effort to create for his readers a form capable of presenting his subjects with the same complexity they possessed. Of American critics, only William Gass rivals James in his ability to produce essays every bit as artful as the literature it discusses. Such artfulness, then as now, is rare--and deserves the attention of serious readers of every sort.