This rather creepy tale was probably written in 1899 and first appeared in April of the following year in the Atlantic monthly. James was given the idea by hearing about a story by Luigi Gualdo (an Italian novelist). In his notebook of September (probably) 1895 he jotted down a reminder to state the idea fully, but if he ever did this it is now lost. Some two and a half years later we have another, longer, reminder, in a list of ideas which needed working on. Here the story gets complicated, because a further notebook entry makes it clear that James had been concerned about Gualdo’s having published his story (named again) but was pleased to hear that he didn’t seem to have published or even written the story, just to have mentioned the idea. James notes that this makes the idea disponible (available) to him. However both editions of the notebooks date this entry as 1900-09-11, some seven months after the first publication of Maud-Evelyn and even after its publication in The soft side, the book collection of tales of that year. This last note seems to refer more to the later tale The tone of time, in which an artist is asked to paint the portrait of the husband a woman never had. It would be nice to clear up this anomaly and I hope to be able to write more when I have had a chance to follow up the items in the, quite extensive, bibliography of critical writing about the tale.
Full details of all publications known to me containing the tale can be found on the relevant page of my index to Henry James’s tales in collections.
The etext on this web-site is taken from the first U.K. book edition in The soft side, subject to changes required by the editor’s standard editorial method. Apart from these, no corrections or alterations have been found necessary.
Because of the production method the text has been proof-read twice, but only by this editor, so it is possible that an error has slipped through both times – offers of proofing assistance will be gratefully received by Adrian Dover.
this note
© 2002
part of an etext edition of
Maud-Evelyn
on
the Ladder : a Henry James website