The Tender Words of Henry James

Abstract

In Henry James' novels The Wings of the Dove and What Maisie Knew, characters again and again are said to show 'tenderness' towards each other, in their cares and through their words. The shape and reception of these tendernesses will depend not merely on the inner feelings which motivate them, but on their outward show too, and, occurring within the novel form, on how we readers understand them, the ways in which they're described. Drawing together the complicated threads of Jamesian love, given and received, in these and various other works, this article traces their and our hazy play of interpretation, and maps out some implications for the acts of readerly engagement in which we constantly, with more or less surety and feeling, are drawn to engage.