Henry James PARISIAN SKETCHES H K N R Y J A M M 8 , J K , HENRY JAMES Parisian Sketches LETTERS TO THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE 1875-1876 Edited with an Introduction by LEON EDEL AND ILSE DUSOIR LIND NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington Square 1957 1957 by New York University Press, Inc. Library of Congress catalogue card number 577914 Manufactured in the United States of America PREFACE Henry Jamess Paris letters to the New York Trib une of almost eighty years ago have been collected in this volume for the first time. Three of the letters were reprinted by James during his lifetime, the remainder were allowed to linger in the crumbling newspaper files in the hope that they would be forgotten. In recent years extracts from those letters that were devoted to the theater were included in Allan Wades collection of Jamess dramatic criticism, The Scenic Art and cer tain passages dealing with paintings were incorporated by John L. Sweeney in his compilation of Henry Jamess art criticisms. The Pointers Eye. The major ity of the letters, however, remained uncollected, and available only to those who cared to read the files or the microfilm record. The documents contained in the appendix to this volume were copied by Use Dusoir Lind in 1950 during a search of the New York Herald Tribune archive car ried out with the kind permission of Mrs. Helen Rogers Reid. They were subsequently used, with the permis sion of Mrs. Reid and of Mr. William James, in an article published by Professor Lind in PMLA De cember 1951, Vol. LXVI, No. 6, 886-910 entitled The Inadequate Vulgarity of Henry James. The edi tors of the present volume wish to renew their thanks to Mrs. Reid and to Mr. James for having made this material available, and to the Houghton Library and V Preface the President and Fellows of Harvard College for Dr. EdePs continued access to the James family papers. The date of each of Jamess letters in the date line is that of the writing of the letter and was so used on publication. At the bottom of each letter we have in serted a second date, that of the issue of the Tribune in which the letter appeared. Certain obvious typo graphical errors and other misprints have been cor rected. I. E. CONTENTS Preface v Introduction ix 1. Paris Revisited 3 2. Paris As It Is 14 3. Versailles As It Is 23 4. Parisian Sketches 33 5. The Parisian Stage 44 6. Parisian Life 54 7. Parisian Topics 64 8. Paris in Election Time 74 9. Parisian Affairs 83 10. Parisian Topics 93 11. Art and Letters in Paris 104 12. Chartres Portrayed 115 13. Parisian Festivity 126 14. Art in France 136 15. Art in Paris 146 16. Parisian Topics 157 17. Parisian Topics 168 18. George Sand 178 19. Summer in France 188 20. A French Watering Place 198 Appendix James-Reid Documents 209 Notes 229 Index 257