Addressing "A Bundle of Letters": Henry James and the Hazard of Authority

Abstract

Addressing "A Bundle of Letters": Henry James and the Hazard of Authority by George Bishop, D'Youville College While weathering an unusually violent Parisian snowstorm in the autumn of 1879, Henry James wrote, "in a single long session and, the temperature apart, at a 'heat,'" his much neglected tale "A Bundle of Letters." It was, he tells us, the production of "a deep concentration, an unusual straightness of labour" (AN 213). In the century that has passed since that day, what scant critical attention this tale has received has been, if not dismissive, then at best deprecatory.1 Despite James's later decision to include "A Bundle of Letters" in the New York Edition, with the resulting imprimatur that that inclusion implies, this tale is seen as quaint, trivial—a rather undistinguished example of an early Jamesian motif. Tony Tanner writes: "Following the success of this story ['Daisy Miller'] James rushed out a series of stories on the international theme—'The Pension Beaurepas,' 'An International Episode,' Ά Bundle of Letters,' 'The Point of View.' These are not stories so much as vehicles for his own mixed attitudes towards Europe and America" (19). Tanner's comment is typical in several respects. "A Bundle of Letters" is seen as a largely unrealized execution of a theme treated more deftly elsewhere; it is confused, the reflection of "mixed attitudes." But what is most interesting here is the attempt to classify this work as something other than what it appears to be: it is not so much a "story" as a "vehicle." Cornelia Pulsifer Kelley, in The Early Development of Henry James, makes the same distinction, characterizing it as a "study" rather than a "story" (273). To a degree, these criticisms are correct. "A Bundle of Letters" is not a "story" in the sense that a story must conform to previously determined rules and expectations. It is not a story precisely because James plays with and around the notion of authoritative forms and the discourse that enacts them. "A Bundle of Letters" is incomplete, but not because it is "inconsequential," because "nothing happens."2 It is incomplete because, while playing precisely at the interface between these rules of authoritative discourse and a sense of innocent, unlettered speech, James has created a text with a hole in it—a hole through which the reader will more than likely slip. While it may be true that James intended to capitalize on his newly recognized position as "the fictional historian of 'the American girl'" (Edel 7), "A Bundle of Letters" nonetheless captures a striking presentation—if only an ironic, deflected one—of ideas and themes that will recur repeatedly throughout James's work. This singleness of concentration, this "heat," produced an authentic example of Jamesian art. The title of "A Bundle of Letters" reflects in large measure the construction of this tale, which consists of nine letters written by the various inhabitants of a Parisian pension who have gathered there for the purpose of polishing their French conversation. The letters are in a "bundle," for their arrangement seems somewhat haphazard on the first reading—it is difficult to discern a clear pattern to Volume 8 91 Number 2 The Henry James Review Winter, 1987 their appearance. Yet such a pattern does exist, brought about by James's proportionately balanced exposition of the international theme: while the story consists of nine letters, the letters are written by only six characters—three Americans and three Europeans. The American contingent is comprised of Miranda Hope, an independent young woman from Bangor, Maine, who is making the "grand tour" unescorted (and who occupies the place of central character if only because of her authorship of four of the letters); Violet Ray, a money- and status-conscious New York socialite; and Louis Leverett, a self-professed Bostonian esthete. Each of the Americans represents, both through their different places of origin and their disparate attitudes and concerns, a distinct yet familiar Jamesian "type." The Europeans are likewise distinguished one from the other by nationality and social rank: Evelyn Vane serves as a representative of the lesser English nobility; Leon Verdier, the Frenchman, combines his position as a somewhat dubious tutor of French with a...