"A Most Unholy Trade," Being Letters on the Drama by Henry James

“A MOST UNHOLY TRADE” BEING LETTERS ON THE DRAMA BY HENRY JAMES
THE SCARAB PRESS PRIVATELY PRINTED MCMXXIII
Copyright, 1923, by Dunster House Bookshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The four letters here printed for the first time are part of Henry James’s informal correspondence with William Heinemann, the publisher. They are selected for their unity of subject, in that they concern themselves with James’s impressions of Ibsen’s “Little Eyolf” and contain some general remarks on the drama. Written about the time of the publication of the first and second series of James’s Theatricals, they indicate his ideas at the time when his consideration of the subject was most intense. Acknowledgment is made to Mrs. J. Tucker Murray and to Pierre de Chaignon la Rose, Esq., for permission to print two of these letters.

Wednesday 34, De Vere Gardens. W.
My dear Heinemann,
I feel as if I couldn’t thank you enough for introducing me to Ibsen’s prodigious little performance! I return it to you, by the same post conscientiously after two breathless perusals,—which leave me with a yearning as impatient, an appetite as hungry, for the rest, as poor Rita’s yearning & appetite are for the missing caresses of her Alfred. Do satisfy me better or more promptly than he satisfied her. The thing is immensely characteristic & immensely—immense. I quite agree with you that it takes hold as nothing else of his has as yet done—it appeals with an immoderate intensity & goes straight as a dose of castor oil! I hope to heaven the thing will reach the London stage: there ought to be no difficulty, if Rita, when she offers herself, can be restricted to a chair, instead of lying on her back on the sofa. Let her sit , and the objection vanishes—I mean let her eschew the sofa. Of course I don’t know what the rest brings forth—but this act & a half are a pure—or an impure—perfection. If he really carries on the whole play simply with these four people—& at the same high pitch (it’s the pitch that’s so magnificent!) it will be a feat more extraordinary than any he’s achieved—it will beat “Ghosts.” Admirable, gallant old man! The success of this would be high! I greatly enjoyed our “lovely luxurious” (as Rita wd. say), fin de soirée , on Monday. Tree is as dewily infantine as Eyolf!