Synopses & Reviews
The author traces Henry James's career-long encounter with the tradition of British aestheticism and places both in the context of the late nineteenth century's professionalisation and commodification of literary life. Professions of Taste reopens the question of later James in a new fashion and with a new perspective. A richer genealogy of modernism, and indeed postmodernism, begins to take shape, in which both the problematics of British aestheticism and James's relations with it play an important role. This book enlightens our understanding of the way Pre-Raphaelite concerns fertilised the aestheticist breeding grounds of Anglo-American modernism.
Review
"This well-written study sheds much new light on the sphere of experience and expertise, the 'aesthetic,' that was created in the latter half of the 19th century. Freedman does an excellent job of showing how apparently rarefied aesthetic doctrines were enthusiastically consumed and 'incorporated' by a surprisingly wide audience, particularly in America. Through a detailed analysis of James' complex relations with Pater, Ruskin, and especially Wilde, Freedman explains how the Master could amass a huge store of cultural capital even as—perhaps because—his novels became increasingly unsellable." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"Our understanding of the way Pre-Raphaelite concerns fertilized the aestheticist breeding grounds of Anglo-American modernism takes a leap forward with Freedman's Professions of Taste, an ambitiously theorized, handsomely written, and enlightening book."Studies in English Literature
Review
"Professions of Taste is a work that Henry James might have read with pleasure. It is beautifully written, crafted in the highest spirit of critical enterprise."American Literature
Review
"An important and innovative book. . . . Professions of Taste reopens the question of later James in a new fashion and with a new perspective. A richer geneaology of modernism, and indeed postmodernism, begins to take shape, in which both the problematics of British aestheticism and James's relations with it play an important role."Henry James Review
Review
"This well-written study sheds much new light on the sphere of experience and expertise, 'the aesthetic,' that was created in the latter half of the nineteenth century."Virginia Quarterly Review
Synopsis
A Stanford University Press classic.
Synopsis
"Our understanding of the way Pre-Raphaelite concerns fertilized the aestheticist breeding grounds of Anglo-American modernism takes a leap forward with Freedman's Professions of Taste, an ambitiously theorized, handsomely written, and enlightening book."—Studies in English Literature
"Professions of Taste is a work that Henry James might have read with pleasure. It is beautifully written, crafted in the highest spirit of critical enterprise."—American Literature
Synopsis
Discusses Henry James and the tradition of late nineteenth century British aestheticism and investigates the way Pre-Raphaelite concerns fed into Anglo-American modernism.
Synopsis
The author traces Henry James's career-long encounter with the tradition of British aestheticism and places both in the context of the late nineteenth century's professionalization and commodification of literary life.