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!
Yours truly,
Henry James
P.S. Do remember that I’m on the sofa, with my hair down—and pink lamp shades!
34, De Vere Gardens, W.
November 22nd, 1894.
My dear Heinemann,
All thanks for your prompt and adequate relief—the last “go” at Act II. It is a very great little affair. If Act III doesn’t drop, it will be Ibsen’s crown of glory—I mean the whole thing will. It is a little masterpiece. It seems to me that he doesn’t make quite enough—(in form, in the pause to take it in, and the indication of the amazement and emotion of Allmers)—of the revelation of the non-relationship; but that is a detail, and the stroke itself—coming where it does—immense. The thing must and can be represented. This Act 2 is such a crescendo on 1. that if 3 is an equal crescendo on 2, the fortune of the thing will be made, and it will be a big fortune. I hope 3 is already on the stocks of translation. It’s a fine case for the British manager’s fine old demand for a “happy ending!” What I seem dimly to divine is that the she-Eyolf goes the same way as the He! i. e. the way of the fiord.