Customer Reviews

Confidence (Large Print)

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One of Henry James' earlier works, Confidence (1879) is set in the familiar territory of young rich Americans on extended trips in Europe, making friendships and romantic acquaintances with other Americans in the expatriate society that has been established in the glamorous settings of Italy, Germany, Switzerland and France. Less melodramatic than his previous novel, The American, and therefore showing less of the influence of European writers, Confidence rather establishes familiar Jamesian themes and explores ideas that contrast European Old World and American society, albeit in a style that is rather more light-hearted that his more notable later works, with the advantage however that it is still entertaining and more readable than some of the latter-day novels.

The story is centred on Bernard Longueville, a young man travelling freely around Europe, sketching and painting, who meets two fellow Americans in Siena - a Mrs Vivian and her daughter Angela, who he sketches while she inadvertently poses picturesquely outside a church waiting for her mother. Bernard expresses his admiration for the young woman and offers her the sketch, but is not so delicately rebuffed by the rather defensive and dismissive young woman. A few weeks later, Bernard receives a letter from his friend Gordon Wright in Baden Baden, exclaiming that he is in love and wants to be married. Bernard rushes to visit his friend and discovers that the object of his affections is none other than the same young woman he painted in Siena.

The majority of the novel explores at length Bernard's attempts to comprehend the actions and motives of Angela Vivian, a young lady who does not act like other society girls such as their rather feather-headed travelling companion Blanche Evers. This attempt to get to the bottom of this strange but undeniably fascinating young woman is initially on the request of his friend Gordon, but Longueville has difficulty coming to terms with his own feelings for Miss Vivian.

Confidence is a slight work by James, a little longer than it needs to be, but witty and entertaining all the same, delighting in the "intellectual fencing" that goes on in the realm of human interaction, relationships and communication, seeking to find truth in the less than precise - and sometimes even contradictory and deceptive - use of language. James manages to do this without over-elaboration, using some nice allusions and metaphors (losing himself to a bout of gambling, although successful, Bernard at one point realises that contrary to the impression of controlling his actions, "he had not been playing - he had been played with"), and without the extravagant verbosity, over-analysis and sometimes unendurable length of his latter works.

Two leisure-burdened young Americans frolic around Europe during the 1850s. One is rich and science minded and without a sense of humor or common sense, the other just well to do and art minded and a little inconsistent and frivolous. They meet some women and try to figure out what they think of them. The artsy one (Bernard) is more in the focus of the narration. His friend (Gordon) asks him to figure out what he thinks of the woman to whom he has recently proposed and who has rejected him (Angela).
Our hero tries to do that and the inevitable complications happen. The woman becomes aware of the consulting project and sabotages the investigation by odd behavior. (This situation is reminiscent of the physics problem that the observation of an experiment tends to interfere with the results of the experiment.)

The basic story sounds as old and solid as a Boccaccio tale. The Decamerone would have gone straight for a love affair between the hero and his spying object, but James didn't do things nice and easy. He thrives on the roundabout way. Frankly speaking, James overdoes the complications of the plot towards the end. Had it shut down after 25 chapters instead of 30, the novel were better.

James lets the spy give his friend a negative verdict on the advisability to renew the quest for the woman. Decisions in other directions are taken (Gordon marries somebody else), but there will be a later re-match, a second round of guessing.

The novel is structured like an hour glass: the first half set in Italy and Germany, then an interruption (with an un-detailed Asia trip), then a continuation, some years later, in NY and France. By now, Bernard has started to feel the emptiness of his life, while Gordon has at least started doing something: he owns a chemistry research lab (unclear if for profit or not).

One of my favorite little texts by Bert Brecht is this:
Herr K met a man whom he had not seen for a while. You have not changed, said the man. Herr K paled.
Consider this Jamesian version, which has clear historical precedence, making Brecht a plagiarist:
You are the same man I used to know (says Gordon to Bernard when they meet again).
I am sorry for that (says Bernard). (The dialogue is repeated by two other protagonists later in the story.)

I am so glad that this has been released on Kindle! Henry James is one of my favorite authors and I had so much trouble finding this title in print. A wonderful read, and interesting view of the times and mores of that era.

I wish that I had met (main character) Bernie Loungeville in the 20's... riding across Europe in a traincar... what an interesting trip that would have been.