“Real”
and “Right” things: mimetic rivalry and epistemological project in
Henry James’s short stories’ by Christian Moraruin : Studies in the humanities (Indiana) vol. 21 ii, 1994, 147-164
‘The real right thing’ by Henry James
in : Collier’s weekly,
vol. 24, 16 December 1899, pages 22, 24
the first appearance in print, appropriately in a December edition of the paper which had published The turn of the screw in the early months of 1898
The soft side / by Henry James. – London : Methuen, 1900. – 391 p. ; 20 cm. – pages 85-103
The soft side / by Henry James. – New York : Macmillan, 1900. – v, 326 p. ; 20 cm. – pages 71-86
contents: The great good place; Europe; Paste; The real right thing; The great condition; The tree of knowledge; The abasement of the Northmores; The given case; John Delavoy; The third person; Maud-Evelyn; Miss Gunton of Poughkeepsie
containing the first book publication on each side of the Atlantic: in Britain on 1900-08-30 (3000 copies, retailing at 6/-) and in America towards the end of September (2800 copies at $1.50)
The altar of the dead, The beast in the jungle, The birthplace, and other tales / by Henry James. – New York : Scribner’s ; London : Macmillan, 1909. – x, n p.; 22 cm. – (The novels and tales of Henry James: New York edition ; Vol. 17) – pages 411-431
contents: The altar of the dead; The beast in the jungle; The birthplace; The private life; Owen Wingrave; The real right thing; The friends of the friends; Sir Edmund Orme; The jolly corner; Julia Bride
in this collective edition, James placed this tale, unsurprsingly, in the ‘ghostly’ volume
for subsequent reprints of this tale see the
relevant page
of my index to Henry James’s tales in collections.
‘Preface’ by Henry James
in : The altar of the dead ... and other tales
(New York edition; 17), – see
above
reprinted in : The art of the novel: critical prefaces / by Henry
James, with an introduction by Richard P. Blackmur. – New York ;
London : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934. – xli, 348 p.; 22 cm.
– pages 241-266
relevant text available on this web-site
A reader’s guide to Henry James / by S. Gorley Putt. – London : Thames & Hudson, 1966. – 432 p.; 22 cm. – page 395
Putt seems unmoved by the tale and merely summarises the situation and plot
‘The right way with reality: James’s The real right
thing’ by J. P. Telotte
in : The Henry James review
vol. 6 i, 1984, 8-14
[not available to me]
‘Discipl(in)ing the Master, mastering the discipl(in)e :
erotonomies of discipleship in James’s tales of literary life’
by Michael A. Cooper
in : Engendering men : the question of male feminist
criticism / edited by Joseph A. Boone and Michael Cadden. –
New York ; London : Routledge, 1990. –
vi, 333 p. ; 23 cm. –
ISBN
examines the ‘Jamesian author-oriented triangle’ in the tale as an example of the disciple’s going ‘behind’ the master and ultimately succumbing to his powerful, spectral, wishes
‘“Real”
and “Right” things: mimetic rivalry and epistemological project in
Henry James’s short stories’ by Christian Moraru
in : Studies in the humanities (Indiana)
vol. 21 ii, 1994, 147-164
[not available to me]
‘The resistance to queory: John Addington Symonds and The real
right thing’ by Hugh Stevens
in : The Henry James review
vol. 20 iii, 1999, 255-264
starting from the premise that resistance to queer (male homosexual/homosocial) readings of Henry James inscribes the very textual and biographical ambiguities highlighted by such readings, Stevens first reviews biographers’ varying certainties about what we can say of James’s own sexuality, and then reads The real right thing for clues as to James’s considered beliefs on biographical certainty, his resitance to biographers and the case of John Addington Symons and Horatio Browns’s biography of him, which Stevens sees as dramatised in the tale (paralleling the treatment of JAS in The author of ‘Beltraffio’)
selective bibliography and critical commentaries
© 2003-2004
part of an etext edition of
The real right thing
on
the Ladder : a Henry James website