The Princess Casamassima

Plot summary

Amanda Pynsent, an impoverished seamstress, has adopted Hyacinth Robinson, the illegitimate son of her old friend Florentine Vivier, a Frenchwoman of less than sterling repute, and an English lord. Florentine had stabbed her lover to death several years ago, and Pinnie (as Miss Pynsent is nicknamed) takes Hyacinth to see her as she lies dying at Millbank prison. Hyacinth eventually learns that the dying woman is his mother and that she murdered his father.

Many years pass. Hyacinth, now a young man and a skilled bookbinder, meets revolutionary Paul Muniment and gets involved in radical politics. Hyacinth also has a coarse but lively girlfriend, Millicent Henning, and one night they go to the theatre. There Hyacinth meets the radiantly beautiful Princess Casamassima (Christina Light, from James' earlier novel, Roderick Hudson).

The Princess has become a revolutionary herself and now lives apart from her dull husband. Meanwhile, Hyacinth has committed himself to carrying out a terrorist assassination, though the exact time and place have not yet been specified to him. Hyacinth visits the Princess at her country home and tells her about his parents. When he returns to London, Hyacinth finds Pinnie dying. He comforts her in her final days, then travels to France and Italy on his small inheritance.

This trip completes Hyacinth's conversion to a love for the sinful but beautiful world, and away from violent revolution. Still, he does not attempt to escape his vow to carry out the assassination. But when the order comes, he turns the gun on himself instead of its intended victim.

Major themes

At first glance, this novel seems very different from James' usual work because of its concentration on radical politics and less-than-wealthy characters. And it's true that the book comes closer to classic Naturalism than any other long fiction in the Jamesian canon. The influence of French Naturalists like Émile Zola is evident in the prison scenes, the depiction of the revolutionary movement, and the deterministic nature of Hyacinth's heredity.

But the novel also explores themes familiar from James' other work. Hyacinth always seems to be an outsider, unable to participate fully in the life around him. He commits himself to the revolution, then hesitates and wavers. He is attracted to the beauty of the world, but can't enjoy it completely because he sees how it is purchased at the cost of so much human suffering. When the final call comes, he can see no way out of his dilemma: either the state will kill him if he carries out the assassination, or the revolutionaries will kill him if he doesn't.

Such hesitations and divided loyalties are common among James' perceptive central characters. Hyacinth's case is particularly acute because his actual life is at stake. In his preface to the New York Edition of the novel, James audaciously compared Hyacinth to Hamlet and Lear. While some may cavil at such comparisons, others believe that Hyacinth's fate does rise almost to classic tragedy.

The novel shows a broad panorama of European life at all levels, and the many supporting characters are presented with a generous helping of humor in a story which shows the influence of Dickens from James' early reading.

Critical evaluation

The Princess Casamassima has had a checkered critical history. Early critics, such as Rebecca West, admired the novel's workmanship and characters, but not the melodramatic plot, while later critics, such as Lionel Trilling, found it a convincing account of political reality. Despite the many well-realised supporting characters, the novel stands on its portrayal of anti-hero Hyacinth Robinson. In his New York Edition preface, James said that he believed he had successfully presented a flawed, but affecting, hero; some critics have disagreed, one dismissing Hyacinth as "a bit of a wimp".