The Inadequate Vulgarity of Henry James

On 26 January 1895, still in the grip of the disconsolate mood engendered by the crashing first-night failure of Guy Domville three weeks before, Henry James made the following entry in his Notebooks:The idea of the poor man, the artist, the man of letters, who all his life is trying— if only to get a living—to do something vulgar, to take the measure of the huge, flat foot of the public: isn t there a little story in it, possibly, if one can animate it with action; a little story that might perhaps be a mate to The Death of the Lion? It is suggested to me really by all the little backward memories of one s own frustrated ambition—in particular by its having Just come back to me how, already 20 years ago, when I was in Paris writing letters to the N. Y. Tribune, Whitelaw Reid wrote to me to ask me virtually that—to make em baser and paltrier, to make them as vulgar as he [sic] could, to make them, as he called it, more ‘personal.’ Twenty years ago, and so it has ever been, till the other night, Jan. 5th, the premiere of Guy Domville. Trace the history of a charming little talent, charming artistic nature, that has been exactly the martyr and victim of that ineffectual effort, that long, vain study to take the measure abovementioned, to ‘meet’ the vulgar need, to violate his intrinsic conditions, to make, as it were, a sow's ear out of a silk purse. He tries and he tries and he does what he thinks his coarsest and crudest. It's all of no use—it's always ‘too subtle,’ always too fine—never, never, vulgar enough. I had to write to Whitelaw Reid that the sort of thing I had already tried hard to do for the Tribune was the very worst I could do. I lost my place—my letters weren't wanted.

II. Chemistry notes

The first step towards the direct formation of this and other chloro-bromides is, of course, the preparation of the solution of chloride of bromine. This I endeavoured to prepare by a process analogous to that by which I had formed the chloride of iodine. I found, however, that in passing the chlorine into the bromine and water, a larger quantity of the former is carried off in the form of vapour. I continued the passage of the gas, nevertheless, till all the bromine was dissolved and the solution assumed a faint yellow tint. On conducting olefiant gas into this, I obtained a very small quantity of an oily liquid, part of which boiled between 106° and 110° Cent. Altogether, it is by no means a productive progress. I made an ineffectual effort to improve it by surrounding the vessel containing the bromine with ice.This, however, only made matters worse, as it caused the formation of solid hydrate of chlorine and of bromine, which prevented the completion of the process. After several unsuccessful experiments I at last hit upon the following process, which answers remarkably well:—500 grains of bromine are dissolved in 4 fluid ounces of a mixture of equal volumes of strong hypochloric acid and water. This solution is introduced into a flask with a long neck, and surrounded with ice. Washed chlorine is then passed into it with repeated agitation, till it ceases to be absorbed. In this way not a trace of bromine is lost, nor are any solid hydrates formed during the passage of the gas. On conducting olefiant gas into this solution, which should be surrounded with cold water and repeatedly agitated, I obtained a large quantity of an oily liquid, which I separated from the acid solution, washed with dilute potash, and distilled. Almost the entire quantity passed over between 106° and 110°, most between 108° and 110°. The following analysis proves that this was the body in question in a state of purity:— C 2 H 4 ClBr. Theory. Experiment. Carbon. . . . . . 16.72 16.57 Hydrogen . . . . 2.78 3.01 This process yields nearly 80 per cent. of the theoretical quantity. Chloro-bromide of propylene (C 3 H 5 ClBr).