THE IVORY TOWER
BY
HENRY JAMES
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1917
PREFACE
The Ivory Tower, one of the two novels which Henry James leftunfinished at his death, was designed to consist of ten books. Threeonly of these were written, with one chapter of the fourth, and exceptfor the correction of a few obvious slips the fragment is here printedin full and without alteration. It was composed during the summer of1914. The novel seems to have grown out of another which had beenplanned by Henry James in the winter of 1909-10. Of this the openingscenes had been sketched and a few pages written when it was interruptedby illness. On taking it up again, four years later, Henry James almostentirely recast his original scheme, retaining certain of the characters(notably the Bradham couple,) but otherwise giving an altogether freshsetting to the central motive. The new novel had reached the point whereit breaks off by the beginning of August 1914. With the outbreak ofwar Henry James found he could no longer work upon a fiction supposed torepresent contemporary or recent life. The completed chapters—whichhe had dictated to his secretary, in accordance with his regular habit formany years past—were revised and laid aside, not again to beresumed.
The pages of preliminary notes, also here printed in full, were notof course intended for publication. It was Henry James's constant practice,before beginning a novel, to test and explore, in a written or dictatedsketch of this kind, the possibilities of the idea which he had in mind.Such a sketch was in no way a first draft of the novel. He used itsimply as a means of close approach to his subject, in order that hemight completely possess himself of it in all its bearings. Thearrangement of chapters and scenes would so be gradually evolved, butthe details were generally left to be determined in the actual writingof the book. It will be noticed, for example, that in the provisionalscheme of The Ivory Tower no mention is made of the symbolic objectitself or of the letter which is deposited in it. The notes, havingserved their purpose, would not be referred to again, and wereinvariably destroyed when the book was finished.
In the story of The Death of the Lion Henry James has exactlydescribed the manner of these notes, in speaking of the "written schemeof another book" which is shewn to the narrator by Neil Paraday: "Looseliberal confident, it might have passed for a great gossiping eloquentletter—the overflow into talk of an artist's amorous plan." Ifjustification were needed for the decision to publish this "overflow" itmight be found in Paraday's last injunction to his friend: "Print it asit stands—beautifully."
PERCY LUBBOCK.
CONTENTS
The Ivory Tower
Notes for The Ivory Tower
THE IVORY TOWER
BOOK FIRST
I
It was but a question of leaving their own contracted "grounds," ofcrossing the Avenue and proceeding then to Mr. Betterman's gate, whicheven with the deliberate step of a truly massive young person she couldreach in three or four minutes. So, making no other preparation than toopen a vast pale-green parasol, a portable pavilion from which therefluttered fringes, frills and ribbons that made it resemble the roof ofsome