Notebook Contents
For those interested in the planning and writing of fictional narratives, the Notebooks are of substantial value. They show James thinking through various possibilities for character and plot development in his fictions, as well as their overall structure and length. James himself seems to have referred to the Notebooks frequently when he wrote the prefaces to the New York Edition (1907-1909) of his fiction.
Occasionally the Notebooks feature encouraging comments by James to himself. A famous example is his brief but emotional note after the failure of his play, Guy Domville. The later Edel-Powers edition includes many more personal notes. Though sometimes trivial, this additional material gives some insight into James' everyday schedule, his wide circle of friends and acquaintances, and even his financial affairs.
Read more about this topic: Notebooks Of Henry James
Famous quotes containing the words notebook and/or contents:
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Such as boxed
Their feelings properly, complete to tags
A box for dark men and a box for Other
Would often find the contents had been scrambled.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)