The Papers (1903)

This story from late in Henry James's career, which is long enough to qualify as a novella (whatever), bears interest for several reasons. First, it's more readable than usual for this part of his career. But the main attraction for me is that it reads like an early and prescient look at public relations, celebrity culture, and mass media. It feels very modern. The "papers" of the title are the tabloids and broadsheets of the time, published frequently and hawked on the streets, the Fleet Street of just over a century ago. The two main characters—with the usual ridiculous names: Maud Blandy and Howard Bight—are go-getters in their 20s attempting to carve out lives as freelance writers for the papers. They meet in coffee shops, stay up on all the latest news, and share information with one another. They're going to end up married but that's beside the point. The point is making a living in this fast-paced exciting world of eternal news. The story is also interesting because for some reason I sense more than anywhere else how much James relished being a Britisher, practically a European. One person who consumes Maud's and Howard's interest is a mysterious glittering celebrity who manages always to stay in the news and yet elude reporters. He has one of the most ridiculous names yet: Sir A.B.C. Beadel-Muffet K.C.B., M.P. (On the other hand, I just started reading my first Jeeves book by P.G. Wodehouse the other day and now I suspect these kinds of names are more like a British thing—perhaps the very reason this story feels so British to me.) Beadel-Muffet pulls off a cunning stunt of public relations, the kind of self-promotion still being worked by celebrities today. Howard intimates to others that he had something to do with it but that's likely more by way of impressing a client. Impressing clients is also something that feels modern in this story. Not that Beadel-Muffet's promotion is terribly original, as Jack the Ripper had already happened nearly 20 years earlier, a key harbinger of the celebrity and mass media times to come. James obviously has no better idea what to do about this phenomenon than we do now all this time later. Like us, he feels gravely suspicious of it. Also like us, he is fascinated by the way it moves and shines in the light.

"interlocutor" count = 2 / 97 pages

In case it's not at the library. (Library of America)