Henry James

“ 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.” ”

“ I think the idea of the First Step interesting—the situation of the girl who has become a man’s mistress, but rises in arms at the idea that her sister should do so—but I am not certain that it stands forth, as the subject, with that big dotting of the big i, that the barbarous art of the actable drama requires. In that art one must specify one’s subject as unmistakeably as one orders one’s dinner—I mean leave the audience no trouble to disengage or disentangle it. ”

“ I can’t help wishing Annie were rather worse herself, for the dramatic effect of the contrast between her own life and character and her intensity about the other girl; in other words, I think you have made her too good and the man she lives with too bad. ”