Theory of the Novel by Novelists: Henry James' What is character but the determination of incident?
Henry James says that the categories of fiction such as character vs incident, novel vs romance--are irrelevant. The only distinction that counts is 'interesting' vs 'uninteresting.'
There is an old-fashioned distinction between the novel of character and the novel
of incident, which must have cost many a smile to the intending romancer
who was keen about his work.
It appears to me as little to the point as the equally celebrated
distinction between the novel and the romance—to answer as little to any
reality.
There are bad novels and good novels, as there are bad pictures and good
pictures; but that is the only distinction in which I see any meaning, and I
can as little imagine speaking of a picture of character. When one says
picture, one says of character, when one says novel, one says of incident, and
the terms may be transposed.
What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident
but the illustration of character? What is a picture or a novel that is not of character? What else do we seek in it and find in
it?
It is an incident for a woman to stand up with her hand resting on a
table and look out at you in a certain way; or if it be not an incident, I
think it will be hard to say what it is. At the same time it is an expression
of character. If you say you don't see it (character in that-allons done!) this is exactly what the artist
who has reasons of his own for thinking he does see it undertakes to show you.
When a young man makes up his mind that he has not faith enough to enter
the Church, as he intended, that is an incident, though you may not hurry to
the end of the chapter to see whether perhaps he doesn't change once more. I do
not say that these are extraordinary or startling incidents. I do not pretend
to estimate the degree of interest proceeding from them, for this will depend
upon the skill of the painter. It sounds almost puerile to say that some
incidents are intrinsically much more important than others, and I need not
take this precaution after having professed my sympathy for the major ones in
remarking that the only classification
of the novel that I can understand is into the interesting and the
uninteresting.
The novel and the romance, the novel of incident and that of character—these
separations appear to me to have been made by critics and readers for their own
convenience, and to help them out of some of their difficulties, but to have
little reality or interest for the producer, from whose point of view it is, of
course, that we are attempting to consider the art of fiction.
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