Henry James's 'The Golden Bowl' as Technological Feat

In November 1903, Henry James described his novel 'The Golden Bowl' as 'a probe plunged to the very base of the subject, a true technological exploit.' This claim, verified over a century later, positions James as an anticipator of modernity. The novel, published in 1904, follows a quartet of wealthy Americans and Europeans entangled in adultery and deceit. James dissects the collapse of a civilized tribe—grand bourgeois incapable of maintaining proper distance, wallowing in possession and meticulous annihilation of time. The work is an overwhelming 660-page novel, masterful in composition but tortuous in language. James invents a singular abstraction, associating 18th-century English classicism with the modern revolutions of Joyce and Broch. He portrays characters like Fanny Assingham, who wears yellow and red to appear as the Queen of Sheba rather than a secondhand dealer. The article argues that James's technological exploit lies in the shimmer of the false to touch the true, makeup to reach the epidermis. Jean-Philippe Rossignol's analysis appears in artpress.