A review by chiaroscuro
Four Meetings by Henry James

3.0

I thought this pretty good, though very much in the Henry James mode (or at least what I've gleaned of it, from what I've read). There's the typical progression of a Jamesian heroine: she begins as an innocent, idealistic and almost stupid young American girl and much later we find she has transformed into someone harder, sharper, cooler; and suffering a sort of genteel poverty. There's an unnamed male narrator who might be in love with the girl. There are corrupting Europeans, an ambiguous premise and ambiguous ending, meetings on both sides of the Atlantic and the perseverance of wilful dignity.

I find these heroines very difficult: all passionless and unable to express their emotions with words. It's left to the gallant, passive hero to interpret her feelings through the carriage of the head or movement of the eyes. So what's the point? This isn't Caroline Spencer's story — we don't know enough about her. And the narrator doesn't even have a name. Who do we feel for? American innocence?