Sentiment for the Dead in The Awkward Age
When the dead grandmother runs the show
Just me and my usual obsession with The Awkward Age.
Nanda Brookenham, the focus of The Awkward Age, Henry James’s 1899 study of the “modern” girl, is the only character the others in her mother’s social group seem to truly like (some in spite of themselves), and the only one who is incapable of pretending to be something she is not.
The Buckingham Crescent set (so called for the Brookenhams’ London home) is a busy one, packed with the usual Jamesian innuendo, bedroom-hopping, and characters who exhibit a flagrant disregard of feelings and propriety while insisting on only the kindest wishes toward all present, though perhaps not quite toward those absent.
Nanda’s authenticity makes her resemblance to her mother’s mother, the late Lady Julia, and the consequences of that resemblance all the more painful to follow. Once Mr. Longdon enters the London scene, Lady Julia, from beyond the grave, influences the Brookenhams and their associates. Longdon’s affection for Nanda, the “charming fruit” of his feelings for her grandmother, becomes a force all its own, steering the course of all of their lives, and, for the most part, not for the better.
(This study was published in ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, vol. 30:4 in 2017. I have a limited number of free eprint links to share if you are interested in reading the full article and are unable to access it - I believe the Taylor & Francis database provides some access for free).
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