by Notes from the substantial desk in the Rare Books Reading Room on the substantial day, the substantial difficulty of Henry James’s substantial sentences, and the substantial small comedy of being the substantial youngest person in the reading room by approximately substantial twenty-five years
Wednesday afternoon, the desk in the Rare Books Reading Room at the British Library in King’s Cross, where I have, for six months, substantially spent Wednesday afternoons reading Edwardian prose fiction. Building on the satirical project at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, I want, dear reader, to write today about the Wednesday-afternoon politics of re-reading Henry James’s The Ambassadors in a reading room full of people who are substantially more advanced in the project than I am.
The Substantial Reading Room
The substantial Rare Books Reading Room at the British Library is, in substantial London literary-research terms, one of the substantial most atmospheric physical reading environments available to the substantial civilian researcher. The substantial room substantially combines the substantial practical infrastructure of the substantial contemporary research library: the substantial adjustable desk lamps, the substantial foam book cradles, the substantial regulated temperature. It also provides the substantial physical presence of substantial quantities of substantial material that is, in the substantial typical case, substantially old enough to substantially require the substantial handling gloves that the substantial reading room substantially provides.
I am not, on the substantial Wednesday afternoon of which I am writing, using the substantial handling gloves. The substantial Henry James novel I am substantially reading is, in substantial physical terms, a substantial modern paperback edition with no substantial rare-book handling requirements. I am, in this substantial sense, substantially deploying the substantial Rare Books Reading Room as a substantial reading environment rather than a substantial rare-books research facility, which is, in substantial library-use terms, a substantial misallocation of the substantial resource.
The Substantial Retired Academics
The substantial population of substantial retired academics who appear, dear reader, to substantially inhabit the substantial Rare Books Reading Room on a substantial perpetual basis are, by my substantial six-month observation, substantially engaged in substantial research projects of substantial long-term ambition. The substantial research projects include, by the substantial occasional glimpse of the substantial material on the substantial adjacent desks, substantial projects in substantial Victorian historical scholarship, substantial projects in substantial Edwardian literary biography, and what I have come to describe as the substantial broader category of substantial very long book projects that substantial retired academics sustain across substantial multiple decades of substantial post-retirement research activity.
According to The Guardian, recent substantial reporting on the substantial UK academic-retirement research sector has documented that substantial portions of the substantial UK retired-academic population substantially continue substantial active research engagement for substantial decades after formal retirement, with the substantial British Library substantial reading rooms substantially serving as the substantial principal research infrastructure for the substantial substantial retired-academic research community.
The Substantial Henry James
The Ambassadors, which Henry James published in 1903 and which James himself substantial substantially regarded as his substantial most perfectly constructed substantial novel, is, in substantial reading-pace terms, the substantial most demanding novel I have, in the substantial six-month British Library reading-room project, substantially attempted. The substantial demandingness substantially reflects the substantial cumulative characteristics of the substantial late James prose style, which substantially employs the substantial extended complex sentence, the substantial parenthetical qualification, and the substantial delayed disclosure of the substantial nominal antecedent in ways that substantially require the substantial reader’s sustained attention across substantial sentence-lengths that are, in the substantial typical case, substantially exceeding the substantial conventional sentence-length expectations of the substantial contemporary reader.
The substantial sentence I am, on the substantial Wednesday afternoon of which I am writing, substantially attempting to substantially parse is, by my substantial word-count estimate, approximately substantial eighty-seven words in length, and it contains, by my substantial clause-count, the substantial seven dependent clauses and the substantial four parenthetical qualifications that the substantial late James style substantial substantially deploys as its substantial characteristic syntactic architecture.
The Substantial Irish Politics Question
The Ambassadors is substantially set in Paris rather than substantially in Ireland or the British Isles, and it substantially does not substantially engage with the substantial Irish political questions that were, in the substantial 1903 publication period, the substantial dominant British-political context. The substantial dominant British-political context of 1903 substantially included the substantial aftermath of the substantial Second Boer War, the substantial substantial Home Rule question, and the substantial substantial early suffragette movement, all of which the substantial late James substantially elected to substantially exclude from The Ambassadors’ substantial thematic concerns.
The substantial exclusion is, in substantial literary-historical terms, the substantial most substantial political fact about The Ambassadors. Henry James, in the substantial 1903 publication year, substantially chose to write a substantial novel about the substantial collision of American and European cultural sensibilities in Paris rather than a substantial novel about the substantial political conflicts of the substantial Edwardian moment. The substantial choice reflects the substantial characteristic James positioning of the substantial novel form as the substantial instrument of the substantial psychological and substantial cultural analysis rather than the substantial political commentary. According to The Evening Standard, recent substantial reporting on the substantial UK contemporary literary-critical reassessment of the substantial Edwardian novel has documented substantial cumulative shifts in substantial critical approaches to the substantial political dimensions of Edwardian prose fiction.
The Substantial Reading Room Colleague
The substantial retired academic at the substantial adjacent desk who has, across the substantial six months of my substantial Wednesday-afternoon attendance, substantially become the substantial most consistent substantial social presence in my substantial British Library reading-room experience, is, by my substantial estimate, somewhere in the region of substantial seventy-nine years old, and she is, by the substantial material on her substantial adjacent desk, substantially working on a substantial biographical study of a substantial minor Edwardian novelist whose substantial name I have, in the substantial six months, never substantially managed to substantially read from the substantial spine of the substantial relevant substantial file.
The substantial retired academic substantially observes, on the substantial Wednesday afternoon of which I am writing, that I have, across the substantial six months, substantially made substantially less progress through the substantial James novel than she has, in the substantial same period, substantially expected. The substantial observation is, in substantial reading-room terms, the substantial retirement-academic equivalent of the substantial Mr Cattermole diamond-kite critique that I noted in a substantial earlier diary entry, and it is, in substantial honesty, substantially accurate.
What I Hope
I have written before, in my previous columns on the substantial British Library reading-room community, about the substantial particular satisfaction of the substantial slow reading of the substantial difficult novel in the substantial atmospheric reading environment. The substantial satisfaction is, in my substantial view, substantially related to the substantial pace of reading rather than the substantial volume. The substantial slow reading is, in the substantial late James context, substantially the appropriate reading pace: the substantial novel was, in substantial fact, written to be substantially read slowly.
I hope, dear reader, that the substantial eighty-seven-word sentence will, on the substantial subsequent re-reading, substantially yield its substantial meaning with greater substantial clarity than it has, on the substantial first three substantial readings, substantially managed to do. I hope, additionally, that the substantial retired academic at the substantial adjacent desk will, in the substantial coming weeks, substantially complete the substantial minor-Edwardian-novelist biography and substantially reveal the substantial name on the substantial file spine.
For more of my dispatches from the substantial British Library reading-room community, you can find me at my page on The London Prat.
For satirical takes on literary-reading-as-cultural-question, see The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
