The Golden Bowl - Henry James [300]
Preface
1. (p. ref) gageure. Wager.
2. (p. ref) louche. Dubious.
3. (p. ref) The Golden Bowl. Only five years had elapsed since the original edition of the novel. The author seems, in fact, to have made only minor alterations to the text, the most noticeable of which is the substitution throughout of the longer forms was not, could not, etc. by the apostrophized forms.
BOOK FIRST
Chapter 1
1. (p. ref) Imperium. Empire. A recurring theme in James. (See e.g. note to p. ref.)
2. (p. ref) victorias. Light, four-wheeled carriages.
3. (p. ref) galantuomo. Gentleman.
4. (p. ref) ‘form’. Behaviour.
5. (p. ref) basse-cour. Farmyard.
6. (p. ref) bêtises. Stupidities.
7. (p. ref) morceau de musée. Museum (i.e. choice) piece.
8. (p. ref) cinquecento. Sixteenth century.
9. (p. ref) cars (U.S.). Railway carriages.
10. (p. ref) gilded the pill. Such touches of anti-Semitism may jar on the modern reader, but were probably taken for granted by James’s contemporaries.
11. (p. ref) Alexander . . . Darius. Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.) of Macedon, who conquered the Persians under Darius III. James is here presenting Adam Verver as a despoiler of empires. Adam also, like Alexander, made his achievements while still comparatively young.
12. (p. ref) Gordon Pym. This allusion introduces a new theme: that of voyages of exploration and discovery. Cf. the Golden Isles, p. ref.
Chapter 2
1. (p. ref) de part et d’autre. By both parties.
2. (p. ref) ‘old England’. The name of a famous shop in Paris selling typically English clothes, including mackintoshes (‘articles in india-rubber’).
3. (p. ref) sposi. Spouses, i.e. the Prince’s sister and her husband.
4. (p. ref) Golden Isles. In Greek mythology, these islands were situated at the farthest limits of the western world. Here grew the golden apples guarded by the Hesperides. They were also known as the Isles of the Blessed, where favoured mortals were allowed to dwell after death (or, exceptionally, late in life).
5. (p. ref) Ecco! That’s it!
6. (p. ref) quattrocento. Fifteenth century.
7. (p. ref) lightning elevator (U.S.). High-speed lift.
8. (p. ref) Machiavelli. Used loosely by Mrs Assingham in its sense of ‘schemer’. However, her companion explores this allusion to the great Italian statesman (author of The Prince, 1513) rather less superficially.
9. (p. ref) rococo. i.e. extravagant.
10. (p. ref) tableau-vivant. The representation of a painting, historic scene, etc., by silent and motionless actors.
11. (p. ref) the Queen of Sheba. A reference to the Biblical episode (1 Kings X) in which the Queen’s visit to Solomon and the magnificence of her train are described in some detail.
12. (p. ref) revendeuse. A secondhand dealer. The themes touched on in this paragraph will re-emerge in the visit to the antique shop in Chapter 6.
13. (p. ref) Northwest Passage. From the sixteenth century onwards explorers had attempted to find a route along the north coast of America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but the first actually to complete the passage was Amundsen in his expedition of 1903–6. This is a good example of James’s topicality.
14. (p. ref) Pocahontas (1595–1617). The daughter of an Indian chief in Virginia. She married an English colonist and went with him to live in England, where she died.
15. (p. ref) doyenne. The oldest or most senior woman.
16. (p. ref) ‘Est-elle toujours aussi belle?’ ‘Is she as beautiful as ever?’
Chapter 3
1. (p. ref) Barbarians. Originally, the tribes outside the Roman Empire.
2. (p. ref) balia. Nurse.
3. (p. ref) contadini. Peasants.
4. (p. ref) podere. Farm.
5. (p. ref) Friday. Unlucky, since it was the day of Christ’s death.
6. (p. ref) the Oratory. The Brompton Oratory in Knightsbridge, the church usually chosen for fashionable Catholic weddings.
Chapter 4
1. (p. ref) tropic islands . . . wide verandahs. Bob Assingham has been serving the far-flung British Empire.
2. (p. ref) Attila the Hun. He and his hordes ravaged the Roman Empire in the fifth century. The British Empire is here seen as destructive of