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By Root 17385 0

‘paid’ went he might have been holding out the money-bag for her to come and take it. But what instantly rose for her between the act and her acceptance was the sense that she must strike him as waiting for a confession. This in turn charged her with a new horror: if that was her proper payment she would go without money. His acknowledgement hung there, too monstrously, at the expense of Charlotte, before whose mastery of the greater style she had just been standing dazzled. All she now knew accordingly was that she should be ashamed to listen to the uttered word; all, that is, but that she might dispose of it on the spot for ever.

‘Isn’t she too splendid?’ she simply said, offering it to explain and to finish.

‘Oh splendid!’ With which he came over to her.

‘That’s our help, you see,’ she added – to point further her moral.

It kept him before her therefore, taking in – or trying to – what she so wonderfully gave. He tried, too clearly, to please her – to meet her in her own way; but with the result only that, close to her, her face kept before him, his hands holding her shoulders, his whole act enclosing her, he presently echoed: ‘ “See”? I see nothing but you.’ And the truth of it had with this force after a moment so strangely lighted his eyes that as for pity and dread of them she buried her own in his breast.

NOTES

In compiling these I have tried to concentrate on those points which will, I hope, enhance the reader’s appreciation and understanding of the novel. It was probably from Balzac that Henry James learned the technique of using historical, artistic, and other references in order to give an extra dimension to his work. (It is particularly noticeable in The Golden Bowl that, once the characters and the main themes are firmly established, the number of references diminishes dramatically.) It is for the sake of this extra dimension that I have gone into such allusions in some detail.

I have also offered translations of all the foreign words and phrases; if good linguists find these superfluous, they need not, of course, refer to them.

PATRICIA CRICK

VOLUME ONE

Preface

1. (p. ref) gageure. Wager.

2. (p. ref) louche. Dubious.

3. (p. ref) The Golden Bowl. Only five years had elapsed since the original edition of the novel. The author seems, in fact, to have made only minor alterations to the text, the most noticeable of which is the substitution throughout of the longer forms was not, could not, etc. by the apostrophized forms.

BOOK FIRST

Chapter 1

1. (p. ref) Imperium. Empire. A recurring theme in James. (See e.g. note to p. ref.)

2. (p. ref) victorias. Light, four-wheeled carriages.

3. (p. ref) galantuomo. Gentleman.

4. (p. ref) ‘form’. Behaviour.

5. (p. ref) basse-cour. Farmyard.

6. (p. ref) bêtises. Stupidities.

7. (p. ref) morceau de musée. Museum (i.e. choice) piece.

8. (p. ref) cinquecento. Sixteenth century.

9. (p. ref) cars (U.S.). Railway carriages.

10. (p. ref) gilded the pill. Such touches of anti-Semitism may jar on the modern reader, but were probably taken for granted by James’s contemporaries.

11. (p. ref) Alexander . . . Darius. Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.) of Macedon, who conquered the Persians under Darius III. James is here presenting Adam Verver as a despoiler of empires. Adam also, like Alexander, made his achievements while still comparatively young.

12. (p. ref) Gordon Pym. This allusion introduces a new theme: that of voyages of exploration and discovery. Cf. the Golden Isles, p. ref.

Chapter 2

1. (p. ref) de part et d’autre. By both parties.

2. (p. ref) ‘old England’. The name of a famous shop in Paris selling typically English clothes, including mackintoshes (‘articles in india-rubber’).

3. (p. ref) sposi. Spouses, i.e. the Prince’s sister and her husband.

4. (p. ref) Golden Isles. In Greek mythology, these islands were situated at the farthest limits of the western world. Here grew the golden apples guarded by the Hesperides. They were also known as the Isles of the Blessed, where favoured mortals were allowed to dwell after death (or, exceptionally, late in life).