Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Henry James

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[edit] Henry James

Partial self-nom. This article has been cooking for a while—most of Wikipedia's history, in fact. Many thanks to Robth for helpful suggestions during peer review. As I said on the peer review page, the main problem I see is the somewhat general nature of the article. The heavy lifting on individual works by James is left to the more than forty related articles. But this may be unavoidable with James. He wrote so many things in so many genres that an article with extensive individual discussions of them would be hopelessly long. The article on The Portrait of a Lady is more than a thousand words long, for instance. Please review and comment. Thanks! Casey Abell 15:08, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

• Object. I can't help but think that 10,000 words would be inadequate to cover Portrait of a Lady and that this is insufficient to cover the monumental subject of James in American literature. What were his influences on other writers? What was the nature of his personal life? What was his writing process like? How did he come to be published in the first place? Did he have any notable mentors? In general, I'm skeptical of an article in which the list sections (Works through External Links) are nearly as long as the narrative sections. I would also like to see this article more extensively illustrated, with PD book covers at a minimum but ideally images of his family and homes as well. This is a fine article, but given the acknowledged mass of James biography and criticism, I feel like this fails to meet criterion (2b). I feel like a daughter article might have a better chance, say, Major themes in the fiction of Henry James. Good luck! jengod 21:34, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
  • At some point you have to make a compromise between completeness and the demands of a general encyclopedia for reasonable consiseness. The James article and the related articles on his works amount to over 25,000 words. I did make the decision not to include all the related articles in the main text exactly to avoid an enormously long article that few readers would slog through, as I mentioned in the nomination. But if others feel that a longer article would be better, it would be possible to pull all or parts of the related articles into the main text to form a bigger entry. As for your specific suggestions, the "Criticism, biographies and fictional treatments" section discusses the influence of James on recent writers, though I could expand the section with examples from, say, Adeline Tintner's Henry James's Legacy. His personal life is treated in the "Life" section and several comments throughout the article. (The statement on the incredibly contentious issue of James' sexuality has gone through a particularly long strange trip, as you can see from the talk page and article history.) His writing process - especially his much discussed switch from handwriting to dictation - is discussed in the "Style" section. His publication history in contemporary magazines is discussed in the "Life" section, including his first piece of published writing. Further details of publication history for individual works are given in the related articles. James' studies of the various European and Anglo-American literatures are mentioned, though I'll admit specific discussion of his mentors - Hawthorne, Balzac and Turgenev, for instance - are in the related articles on his critical works. The list sections include the footnotes, which offer much narrative themselves, and the links to the related articles, which have to be listed somewhere. A couple illustrations are in the article already. I could scan some more, though I don't know that a picture of, say, Lamb House would be particularly enlightening. (It's already in the linked article on Rye, East Sussex.) Pictures of his family are easily available from the links in the first paragraph for an interested reader. All in all, it comes down to how lengthy an article is required. If others feel the main article should be significantly longer, I'll pull in text from the related articles. Casey Abell 22:32, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
  • One more point on the related articles about James' individual works. I definitely want to keep those articles around because quite a few of them have crept up the Google ladder and landed on the first or second page. A few, like A Small Boy and Others, are number one on the hit parade. So even if the consensus is to bring some or even all of their text into the main article, it would be helpful for people searching on Google to have the individual entries available. In general, I have no problems writing more about James, if people want the article expanded. As I said on the talk page: "I keep throwing in more stuff." In fact, sometimes I have to tell myself to STOP TYPING. In the already discussed article on The Portrait of a Lady I found myself pounding away about the Jane Campion movie version and how it got so-so reviews and how James himself might have agreed that the book doesn't make for a great visual presentation and how somebody wanted James to turn the book into a play but HJ didn't think it could be done and...at this point I had to tell myself: "NO MAS. This article has to end somewhere." Casey Abell 01:42, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Well, I went ahead and brought some (edited and rearranged) text from the related articles into the main entry, under the headings "Major novels" and "Shorter narratives." I think this will help meet the objection about an insufficiently detailed article. I also added some carefully phrased comments to the "Life" section that should meet the objections about insufficient material on James' mentors and personal life. Later today I'll add a "James' legacy" section that will expand the comments already in "Criticism, biographies and fictional treatments" about James' influence on other writers. In order to keep the TOC under control, I combined the three sections, "Themes," "Style," and "Analysis." I also used a couple of images from the articles on Rye and Henry James, Sr. Casey Abell 14:30, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

• Comment I'm almost ready to support this, and, as I said on peer review, I think the article as a whole is superbly written, and I think it's now well sourced as well. At the moment, however, the material on his works added to meet the request above is very choppy; perhaps it could be tied together in a larger discussion of the evolution of his style and choice of themes throughout his career. However it's done, I'd like to see a little more continuity between what at the moment are very blocky and unconnected paragraphs on each of the works discussed. But again, beyond this one issue, I'm very impressed, and I think this can definitely be an FA. Good work! --Robth^Talk 17:47, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Good point on the choppy transitions. I've tried to smooth them out by placing the particular novels and tales in the larger context of James' career and the phases of his writing. Casey Abell 18:50, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
    • That takes care of my concern, and I now Support.
• Support. Comment. I think the portrait image in the Works section should be moved up somewhere, instead of being at the very bottom. Also, you should try and wikify some terms in the captions of images (such as his father's name), if possible. Gfores ^Talk 07:39, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Good points. I moved up the Sargent portrait of James and wikified the names in the captions. Casey Abell 13:01, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
• Support I've read this through several times. I think we have to remember that this is an encyclopedia, thus in reality the biography always has to be a little potted. James is a huge subject. There are always gong to be shortcomings, and improvements in the eyes of some James' scholars. Regarding specifically this page - Does it meet all the criteria of a FA ? - In my view it does. Anyone seeking an extensive but accurately summarised view (if those two adjectives are possible to describe a summary) of James life will find all they need here. Coupled with the links to his works - this is good. I'm happy to support it, and hope to see it on the main page soon. Giano | talk 20:23, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Object (Criterion 2a). I, too, want to see this on the main page; however, when we're dealing with a literary great, nothing less than brilliant prose will do justice to the topic. The text needs to be thoroughly copy-edited to meet the explicit demands of 2a, which I think should be applied strictly here. I've extracted some examples of things that need fixing, mostly from the lead. They are representative of problems throughout. Tony 08:22, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

• 'the late 19th and early 20th century'—centuries.
  • Changed.
• 'upon'—most authorities would say use 'on', unless there's a good reason to be old-fashioned.
  • Changed.
• 'James contributed significantly to the technique and criticism of fiction'—category problem: criticism of fiction has its own technique; needs to be reworded.
  • Reworded to emphasize James' literary criticism. The next sentence emphasizes his inventive use of important techniques in his fiction.
• An extraordinarily productive writer, he also published substantive books of travel writing and autobiography'—again, a category problem, here involving the use of 'also': so travel writing and autobiography are somehow additional to his extraordinary productivity as a writer?
  • The idea is that James also wrote a number of books in other genres besides the fiction and literary criticism mentioned in the preceding two sentences. But I dropped the "also" (though I think its meaning is clear) and added a couple more genres.
• Can 'possibly' be avoided in the lead?
  • No. The narrator of The Turn of the Screw, for instance, is possibly but by no means certainly unreliable. The ambiguity helps give the story its tremendous power. See also the possibly but by no means certainly unreliable narrators of The Friends of the Friends and The Sacred Fount.
• Under-referenced; for example, just below the lead: 'but he much preferred reading and writing fiction to studying law'—says who?
  • Henry James. It's now footnoted with James' own words and referenced to Edel's edition of the Notebooks.
• Could do with a few more commas, if their insertion is carefully judged.
  • Happy to put them in if you point out the particular places. Oddly enough, James grew to dislike commas as he got older, and he eliminated a lot of them in his New York Edition revisions. In a letter of November 14, 1914 to his literary agent J.B. Pinker, he said that Martin Secker's proposed edition of his books should make sure that the New York Edition "is utterly and absolutely conformed to, to the very most lurking comma, and still more to the very most patent absence of one." (Emphasis mine.)
• The interpolated comments are mine. Any other suggestions for copy-editing are welcome. Casey Abell 07:13, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Thanks for your response; my examples, of course, were in support of my contention that the whole article needs treatment, not just the examples. On commas, that's an interesting point; however, James's relationship with readers was of his own specific making, whereas in this WP article, our purpose is a little different (incl. speaking plainly, directly and simply to specialist and non-specialist readers alike about James himself), and may justify the use of more commas than the great man himself used. Tony 08:23, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
    • Again, I'd be happy to copy-edit anything else in the article that you think needs the treatment. Please specify actionable items. On commas and punctuation marks in general, I follow the same practice as James: avoid where possible. Thanks for your careful attention to the article. Casey Abell 15:24, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
      • Well, James wasn't writing encyclopedia articles, and we're not writing 19th-century novels; to slavishly imitate his use of punctuation is pointless, because we have a different purpose and a different relationship with the reader. Tony 11:15, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
        • Sorry to ask this again, but please specify where you think additional punctuation is needed. I've reviewed the entire article carefully, and I can't see any places where more punctuation would improve clarity or flow. I'd be happy to consider any specific examples you offer. Casey Abell 13:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

OK, I'll give an example: sometimes the 'Oxford' comma is used (a, b, and c) and sometimes not (a, b and c); consistency would be nice.

'travel writing, biography, autobiography and visual arts criticism'

'read, criticized, and learned from'

'travel writing, biography and autobiography'

It's a matter of style rather than presciption; I'd go for excluding the last comma unless required to avoid ambiguity. Apart from the Oxford issue, here's a comma you might remove:

'including two left unfinished at his death, and 112 tales of varying lengths'

Here are a few more points at random. With a more work throughout, the article may be acceptable for promotion.

'the US's refusal'—more elegant as 'American refusal'

'His letters are often filled with'—'Many of his letters are filled with'

'a very large number of nonfiction essays and books'—remove 'very'?

'due to the carefully described details'—most US and UK style manuals recommend 'because of'.

'James's style seems to change during his career from a straightforward style early on to a more languid style later, and biographers have noted that the change of style ...'—'style' appears four times

'middle to late prose'—middle prose? late prose?

Too many stubby paragraphs later in the article. Tony 13:39, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

"American refusal" is ambiguous; America is more than just the U.S. Maybe "refusal of the US government?" --Spangineer (háblame) 17:09, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks for the specific suggestions. I agree we should eliminate commas where possible! I combed the article for them and got rid of a few of the little critters. I admit there are still occasional inconsistencies. I use ", and" when the joined phrases are long and involved. Some minor rewrites: "America's refusal," "many of his letters," remove that "very," change to "because of," "later works." None of these seem all that important to me, but there's no reason not to change. The only major tinkering was with the "four styles" sentence. I split the sentence into two and used "style" only once in each of the remnants. If it makes any difference, the sentence wasn't mine! Finally, I joined together some of the later paragraphs. This is obviously a matter of taste. I prefer shorter paragraphs, but again there's no particular reason not to make the change. Many thanks for reading the article so carefully. Casey Abell 16:49, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
• support well written. important topic. good balance to material includedAnlace 04:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
• support well written, well organized,well linkedAnlace 03:27, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
• Object—I'm striking the repeat vote by Anlace. A few problems: the third paragraph of the Life section is not referenced; is there a source for the information on who influenced him? The paragraph on Prose says "Biographers have noted". Who? You seem to imply cause-effect; why not make it explicit? Should the possessive be James' or James's? There's only one of him; I've always been under the impression that the s is repeated if the word isn't plural, but I could be wrong on that one. Finally, the links to movies in the legacy section shouldn't point to imdb; they should be internal links to articles here, even if we don't have them yet. Could "Related articles on James' works" be changed to something like "Notable works by James"; as it stands it is a see also section that is largely unnecessary because those works were mentioned in the text. It ought to be some sort of list of his works. --Spangineer (háblame) 16:14, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
  • James himself acknowleged his debt to the three listed writers, and many critics have noted examples of their influence. I've added an extensive footnote with a number of particular instances. There was already a footnote on James's dictation and the possible effects on his style. I've added specific page references to the footnote and a further reference to the monograph on James's work habits by his secretary Theodora Bosanquet. It's obviously impossible to make a definitive statement about the effects of dictation on James's style. We can't rerun his life to see if his style would have evolved in the same way if he had continued to write all his works in longhand. All that's possible is to note the changes, speculate on possible causes, and give references to writers who have commented on the issue - which the article does. James' or James's makes no difference to me. I've changed to James's throughout the article to resolve the objection. What's wrong with the links to IMDb? They're informative, extensive and accurate for the listed movies. Seems a lot more sensible to link to very good IMDb pages instead of Wikipedia articles that may not even exist. [Update: To resolve the objection I've made the suggested change, even though all the Wikipedia articles are stubs. The IMDb links have been moved to "External links."] The section title also makes no difference to me. I've changed to "Notable works by James" to resolve the objection. Many of the books and stories in the section are not mentioned elsewhere in the article, so the list functions as both a "See also" section and as a more complete list of James's works. (An exhaustive list of all James's works would be impossible, unless we want to duplicate Edel's 428-page bibliography.) By the way, the list of his tales will grow over the next few days. I'm adding articles about a number of his stories. Thanks to SimonP for creating a category for all those articles! Casey Abell 19:52, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
    • Thanks for resolving my objections. I now support. I realize the difference in his writing isn't something that can be measured, but I expect that it has been speculated on, and I assume that the speculation has gone beyond "it's interesting that his writing style seemed to change when he started dictating to a secretary" to "I bet that secretary added some fluff to his writing". Quoting the people who say that and the people who disagree would be optimal, but perhaps not worth the space in this article. As for James' vs. James's; if someone comes along and says absolutely not and gives a good style reference, that's fine with me; I won't object over that if someone is absolutely sure on that issue, as it's never been 100% clear for me. Linking to stubs is better than external links, because that way our stubs are more likely to get developed. If we had originally started using only external links when all we had were stubs, there would be alot more short articles on Wikipedia right now. And yes, I figured that the exhaustive list of his works would be unbearably long; I just didn't want the title of the section to imply that we were listing only the works for which Wikipedia has an article. The difference is subtle, but I'm not willing to suggest that notability of a work is determined by the existence or non-existence of a Wikipedia article. Thanks again for working on this; I'm glad I'm able to support this FAC. You've done a great job on this article. --Spangineer (háblame) 04:08, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
      • Oh, and one more thing; the size of this article is excellent. Wikipedia:Summary style is important, and one has to remember that we're not writing a book about Henry James, we're writing an encyclopedia article about him. 25,000 words in one article would be overkill. I think this article adequately covers the man and his overall contribution to literature, which is the focus it should have.--Spangineer (háblame) 04:12, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
        • Thanks for the support. I don't think that anybody's suggested James's secretaries padded his work, least of all those secretaries themselves. But many have speculated that dictation may have affected his style. James himself didn't think that dictation had anything to do with the development of his manner. When writer Morton Fullerton made such a suggestion, James brushed it off in a March 1, 1897 letter: "I can be trusted, artless youth, not to be simplified by any shortcut or falsified by any facility." This pretty comment is in the footnoted pages of Edel's biography. I wanted to include the whole quote in the footnote because it's so well-turned and somewhat famous in James studies. But the footnotes are out of control already. Casey Abell 04:27, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
• Comment. Just want to note that I've now met every specific, actionable and correct suggestion from the three objectors. [Update: one objector. The vote now stands 5-1 or 6-1, depending on how optimistic you want to be (wink).] One suggestion for 10,000+ words on The Portrait of a Lady alone was obviously not actionable in any encyclopedia article of reasonable length. Another suggestion to add some commas and then to take some commas out seemed contradictory, but I did my best to use the little critters correctly. Many suggested changes seemed of little or no importance to me (change "due to" to "because of," change a title heading from "Related articles on James's works" to "Notable works by James," change "US" to "America," insert a picture of one of James's residences, change "upon" to "on," etc.) but I made them anyway. Some were matters of taste about which there is no arguing: longer paragraphs instead of shorter ones, for instance. But again I made the changes. I did refuse to make a few suggested changes that were flatly incorrect, such as removing the "possibly" from "possibly unreliable narrators" or stating explicitly that James's switch to dictation caused changes in his style. But I've made every good-faith effort possible to meet the objections. Casey Abell 23:11, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Objection withdrawn. Tony 22:37, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Comment—It's not a vote; it's a process of gaining consensus. One serious objection may capsize the nomination; three fuzzy objections may not. Best not to do the numbers thing. Tony 01:08, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

I thought the (wink) would be enough, but I'll post an OFFICIAL HUMOR DISCLAIMER on the vote count (wink). Casey Abell 02:04, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

• Last Minute Support Looks very good. It looks like all still-standing objections have been met as well, which is a good sign. —Cuiviénen (Cuivië) 03:50, 4 February 2006 (UTC)