LTHOUGH Spoils of Poynton is not, comparatively speaking, a baffling novel-there is, for example, nothing in it quite so enigmatic as Isabel Archer's final decision to return to her husband -it does nevertheless present certain problems, all of which have received attention in recent criticism. These problems may best be expressed as questions: Does subject of controversy-the splendid furnishings of Poynton-justify vehemence of passions aroused?' Does James adequately demonstrate fineness of Fleda's sacrificial exaltation?2 And why does Poynton burn down?' In a sense, last question is most crucial, since answer to it will derive from our interpretation of whole novel. emphasis of more recent criticism of James would seem to lie on three main approaches-through structure,4 through moralEzra Pound, A Shake Down, Little Review, V, 31 (Aug., I9I8), thought that novel was full of a good deal of needless fuss. 'The Notebooks of ed. F. 0. Matthiessen and Kenneth B. Murdock (New York, I947), pp. 2I6, 248. That James in fact demonstrates narrowness of Fleda's rigid adherence to principles regardless of consequence is burden of an attack on heroine by Patrick F. Quinn, Morals and Motives in Spoils of Poynton, Sewanee Review, LXII, 563-577 (Autumn, I954). 'his last question has been answered in such widely divergent ways that it bids fair to be considered novel's chief crux. Adeline R. Tintner, The Spoils of James, PMLA, LXI, 239-251 (March, 1946), sees a parallel between Owen and spoils as dissimilar results of a mother's attention; they are so linked that Fleda cannot lose one without other, and spoils are burnt when Owen marries to indicate that both are now lost to Mrs. Gereth. F. W. Dupee, James (New York, 1951), pp. I88-I9I, finds an ambivalence in burning, which can represent both relinquishment of aesthetic sensibility in favor of moral imagination and danger inherent in exercise of a moral sense, which always risks loss of happiness; in this last sense fire destroys but it also purifies. Bradford A. Booth, Henry James and Economic Motif, Nineteenth Century Fiction, VIII, 141-150 (Sept., 1953), sees in fire an ironic comment on the folly of placing too high a value on material possessions. For Quinn, burning is symbolic of Fleda's willingness to sacrifice everything and everyoneincluding herself-for sake of her principles. Charles G. Hoffmann, Short Novels of James (New York, 1957), p. 69, finds in final destruction an ironic twist whereby neither side wins. 'Hoffmann, pp. 59-67, follows this method in an analysis of novel which aims at demonstrating James's application of theater techniques in his later fiction.