Princess Casamassima

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The Princess Casamassima: Realism and the Fantasy of SurveillanceAuthor(s): Mark SeltzerSource: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Mar., 1981), pp. 506-534Published by: University of California Press

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ThePrincess asamassima:Realismandthe

Fantasy fSurveillanceMARK SELTZER

VVEo not suffer rom hespymaniahere,"GeorgeR. Sims

observesn hismonograph n the Londonunderworld, he Mys-teries fModernLondon: in this free and" it is "not ourcustomto take violentmeasures" gainstthesecret gentsof thenetherworld.The freedom rom iolencethatSimscelebrates, owever,carries rider hathe at once suggestsnd disavows,nd the"spymania" reappears n a somewhat ifferentuise: "The systemfobservation is as perfect s can be.... everyforeignanarchistandterroristnownto the police-and I doubtifthere s one in ourmidstwho is not-is shadowed." London's "freedom" s guaran-

teedby the existence fan unlimited olicing nd bythe dissem-inationof elaboratemethodsof police surveillance.An intensewatchfulnesseneralizes he spymania thatSims has discounted,and forthe violenceof thelaw is substituted more subtleandmore extensivemodeofpowerand coercion:a power ofobserva-tionandsurveillance,nda seeing hat perates s a moreeffectivemeansofoverseeing. or is it merely,n Sims's ccount, heagentsof secret ocieties nd criminals f theunderworldwho are shad-owed bythis perfectystemf observation. ondon itself s con-

stituted s a secret ociety,nd everydayife is riddledwith sug-? 1981 byThe Regentsofthe University fCalifornia0029-0O564/81/01065+29$00.50

[506]







The PrincessCasamassima 507

gestions fcriminalitynd encompassed yan incriminatingur-veillance:

In thebuses ndthetrams nd thetrains he ilent assengersit ideby ide, ndno mantroublesbouthisneighbour.utthemysteriesfmodern ondonare representedn thecrowded ehicle nd in thepacked ompartment.he quiet-lookingoman ittingpposite ou ntheomnibus nows he ecrethat hepolicehavebeenseekingodis-coverformonths. he man whopolitely aiseshis hat becausehe

touches ouas hepasses rom isseatwould,f thetruthwereknown,bestandingnthedockof theOld Bailey oanswer capital harge.

Themelodramafthe ecretrimendthe ecretifepasses,sidebysidewith ll that s ordinaryndhumdrumn themonotonyofeverydayxistence."ndsince herere "nomysteriesfmod-ernLondonmore erriblehantsunrecordednes," silence" anonly mply morenefariousriminality;ndnot to have beenbroughtobookbythepolice anonlynvoke suspicion fmys-teriesmorensidiousnd ofa criminalityore hreateningn itsapparentnnocencendordinariness.'

If Sims's ision ftheLondon treetssmarkedy fantasticparanoia,t s also a remarkableieceofpolicework, n attemptto"book"London's nrecorded ysteriesndtosupplementheofficialolicerecordhroughnunrestrictedaypolicing. iscov-eringmysteriesverywhere,imsplaces ll ofLondonunder us-picionandunder urveillance.or is Sims's isionuntypical fthemannern whichLondon s seenand recordedn the atenineteenthentury.heextensiveocumentationhatccummulatesaboutLondonfrom hemid-centuryn displaysn interestingparadox.On theonehand, romGeorgeW. M. Reynolds'sheMysteriesfLondon (1845-48) toSims'sThe Mysteries fModernLondon1906), ondonwasreproducedsan mpenetrableegionofmystery;nthe ther, s this roliferatingiteraturetselfesti-fies, ondonwas subjected o an unprecedentednd elaboratescrutinyndsurveillance.he sense f the ity s an area ofmys-teryncitesn ntensiveolicing,policework ot onfinedotheinstitutionsf the aw (although heexpansion f theLondonpolice nddetectiveorces as"a landmarkn thehistoryfad-

1 The MysteriesfModernLondon London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1906),pp. 81,10, 8.







508 Nineteenth-Centuryiction

ministration")2ut enacted lso throughn "unofficial"iteratureof detection: ythereportsf tourists rom he"upperworld" ndby the nvestigationsf an exploratoryrbansociology, articular-ly the workof HenryMayhew,CharlesBooth,and B. SeebohmRowntree.t is playedout also in the "discovery"f thecity, ndits underworld, ythe realist nd naturalist ovelists.

HenryJames's ccentricontributionothe iterature f Lon-don exploration s The Princess Casamassima, is vision of the"sinister narchicunderworld"of London. "Truly, of course,"

James bservesn hispreface othenovel,"there re Londonmys-teries densecategories f dark arcana) for every pectator."ThePrincessCasamassima s a novel about the mysteriesf London,aboutspiesand secret ocieties, nd it is also a novel about specta-,torship,bout seeingand being seen. Jamesoffersn obliginglysimple ccountofthenovel's origin:"this fiction roceededquitedirectly,uring he first earofa longresidencen London,fromthehabit ndthe nterest fwalking he treets."The attentivex-ploration of London," he suggests, . . . fullyexplains a large part"

ofthenovel;one walked "withone's eyesgreatly pen," and thisintense bservationrovoked a mysticolicitation,heurgent p-peal, on the part f everything,o be interpreted."3t is the in-sistent onitinuityetween ecrecynd spectatorship,etween he"mysteriesbysmal" f London and the urgent olicitation o in-terpretation,hat want to focus n in this tudy f The PrincessCasamassima.More precisely, wantto exploretwo questions hatthiscontinuity oses.First,what does it mean to walk the streetsofLondonat thistime, nd how does this treet-walkingunctionas a metonymyor hewaysLondon is seen byJames nd hiscon-temporaries?econd,how do the content nd the techniquesofrepresentationn James'snovel reproduce heLondon spymaniaand thecoercivenetwork f seeingand power that characterizethe literature f London mysteries?

Critics f The PrincessCasamassima ave traditionallyocatedits,politicsnJames's epresentationf Londonanarchist ctivitiesandhave argely ismissedhenovel'spoliticaldimension ypoint-

2 Francis Sheppard, London 1808-1870: The Infernal Wen (Berkeley: Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1971),p. 36.

3 The PrincessCasamassima (New York: Scribner's,1908), , xxi, vii, v. Subsequentreferences o the novel and to the preface are to thisedition (Vols. V and VI of theNew York Edition) and are given in parentheses n the text.








ing to James's ack of knowledge bout these ctivities. he criticalimpulsehas been to rescuethe significancef the textby redirect-ing attention way from ts ostensible olitical ubject to itstech-niques, nd these echniques ave been seen to be at odds with henovel's politicalreferences. anfredMackenziehas recently um-marized hisdepoliticization f the text, laiming hatJames, be-causeofhis prior rprimary merican ssociation .. cannotpar-ticipaten anyconventionalmodesof European social power, nlyin 'seeing,'or 'knowledge,' r 'consciousness.'14But can "seeing"

and "power" be so easily opposed in this iterature, nd are thepolitics of The Princess Casamassima eparable from ts tech-niques, from tsways f seeing nd ways f knowing?What I hopeto demonstrates that The Princess Casamassima s a distinctlypoliticalnovel but thatJames's nalysis f anarchist olitics s lesssignificanthan the power play that the narrative echnique tselfenacts.This is not to say that hepolitics f the novel are confinedto ts techniques: he nstitutionsf the aw and itsauxiliaries, ri-marily he prison nd thepolice, function s explicit opics n the

text. But beyond these explicit and local representationsf po-licing power, there s a more discreetkind of policing that thenovelengages, police work rticulated recisely long thenovel'sline of sight.

If a relation between eeing and power becomes evident nthe literature f the London underworld,t asserts tselfnot be-

cause thewriter cknowledges herelationbut, rather, ecauseheworks ocarefullyo disavow t.Sims, or nstance, eniestheexist-ence of a "spymania" on two counts:first, y separating olicesurveillance rom n exercise fpower, nd second,by attemptingtodrawa linebetweenhisownactsofespionage nd thoseofthepolice. Sims nsists hathe doesnotrequirea policeescort n his

4 Communitiesof Honor and Love in Henry James (Cambridge: Harvard Univ.Press, 1976), p. 3. Cf. Lionel Trilling, The Liberal Imagination (New York: Viking,1950), p. 92; Irving Howe, Politics and theNovel (Cleveland and New York: Merid-

ian Books, 1957), p. 146; John Goode, "The ArtofFiction:Walter Besant and HenryJames," n Tradition and Tolerance in Nineteenth-Century iction, ed. David How-ard, John Lucas, JohnGoode (London: Routledge, 1966), p. 280; and Lyall H. Powers,Henry James and the Naturalist Movement (East Lansing: Michigan State Univ.Press, 1971), p. 119.








wanderings hrough heLondon streets: I have neveraskedfortheir ssistancenmyourneyingsnto darkplaces."5Nevertheless,he is uneasily ware ofthe ncriminatingast of his prowlingndpublicationof theLondon netherworld. n his earlierHow thePoor Live and HorribleLondon (1883), he notesthat"it is un-pleasant to be mistaken,n underground ellars wherethevilestoutcasts ide from he ight f day,fordetectivesn search ftheirprey.""Techniques of "disinterested"nformationatheringre

unpleasantlymistaken orexercises fsocialcontrol.Additionally, imsattempts o defendhimself rom notherkindof "mistake," misreadinghatwould similarly ut his mo-tives n question.He introduces is textwith series fdisclaim-ers: "It is not myobject n thesepages to bring ut the sensationalfeatures f police romance"; my task "has for ts objectnot thegratifyingf a morbid uriosity, ut the betterunderstanding fthings as they are." But if Sims seeks to tell "only the truth .. aplain unvarnished ale,"his account, gain, everywhereakesthe

form f what he protestsgainst. f he will reveal onlythe truth,it is because the "truth s stranger han nywritten alecould everhope to be"; and heproceeds o detail theunderworld fEast Lon-don as "the romances fthe Mysterious ast.' 7 His motives nd,by implication, hemotives f his audience cannot be separatedfrom morbid uriosity-mongering.ims'sworks ensationalize hemysterieseneaththehumdrum urface nd posit uridsecrets obe detected; hey ncite nd cultivate fascination iththeunder-worldthatconvertst into a bizarre peciesofentertainment. n

the one side,putting heunderworldnto discourse akes he formofa certain etectivework, n the other, he purveying fa sensa-tional entertainment.t is between hesetwopoles-policing andentertainment-thatims wishes to situate his texts,disclaimingbothhis (mis)identifications a detective nd his exploitation fan intrusive oyeurism. ims triesto open up a narrow pace-called "things s they re"-to evade the charge fviolatingwhathe sees nd reports. utthis pace s erodedfrom oth ides:watch-ing cannotbe freed rom n act of violation, rom conversion f

6 The Mysteries of Modern London, p. 12.6 Cited by Jack Lindsay, Introduction to Jack London, The People of the Abyss

(1903; rpt. of 1st ed., London: Journeyman Press, 1977). p. 7.7 The Mysteries of Modern London, pp. 9-14.







The Princess Casamassima 511

the bjects fhis nvestigationnto, s heexpressest, he victimsofmy uriosity."8

The doublebind n which imsfinds imself,ndthe libisheoffersoextricateimself,ecur requentlyn other epresenta-tionsof theLondonunderworld.his literatures always,neffect,layingn the twin enses f"bringingobook,"makingitdifficultodisentangleublicationromncrimination,ndfore-groundinghepolicework lways atentn theretailingfLon-

donmysteries.amesGreenwood,nhisLow-Life eeps:AnAc-count ftheStrange ish to be FoundThere 1881),feels om-pelled, ike Sims, o offerpologies orhis intrusionsntotheunderworld:The extraordinaryndurancefpopularnterestnthe Ortonmposture'. . willperhaps e regardeds sufficientjustificationorhere eproducinghatwasperhalpshemost on-clusivevidenceftheman's uilt t the ime, rsince roughtolight."Greenwood,owever, oesmore hanreproducehe evi-dence ndrespond,fter hefact,opopular emand. isown n-

vestigationsave n factproducedheconfession,nditsaccom-,panyingopularity.reenwood asbrought,Ortonobook n thedouble ense hat have ndicated:I amglad oacknowledgehatthe onfessionf brotherharles'was obtained yme,themoresowlhenreflectnthevast mount fpatiencend,perseveranceitwasfound ecessaryoexercisenorder obringhe ndividualin question o book."The impostor rton s turned ver, n asingle esture,o thereading,publicndto thepolice.AndwhatfollowsGreenwood'self-congratulatorycknowledgmentf his

agencys Orton's igned onfession-theignatureuridically e-producedt the loseofGreenwood'shapter-servingoth s anentertainmentnthepopularnterestndas an instrumentf n-dictment.9

Greenwood's esture owardustifications a momentaryon-fessionn hisownpartof the"power fwriting" hathe exercises;his documentation f London mysteries,n Low-LifeDeeps andinhisearlierThe WildsofLondon (1874), salso a kind ofvictim-ization.More often, owever,hevictimizations lessexplicit;the

function fsupplyingn entertainments moreobviousthan any8 Ibid., P. 12.9Low-LifeDeeps: An Account of the StrangeFish to be Found There (London:

Chatto, 1881),p. 95.








overt olice ction. ames, e recall, peaks f "mysteries. . foreverypectator,"nd t s asa spectaclehat heunderworlds mostfrequentlyepresented.urther,ames'sormulation-"mysteries. . . for very pectator"ather han spectatorsor verymystery"-points to theconstitutiveower hat he pectatorxerts. hewatcherproduces,nd notmerely eproduces,hathe sees andputs heunderworldn stage s a theatricalntertainment.

The "staging"f theunderworlds evidentnDanielJosephKirwan's alaceand Hovel (1870). Kirwans an unselfconscious

curiosityeeker,nddesiresimplytoseesomethingnteresting."Presenting series f underworldscenes," e records,orex-ample, visit oa thieves' en, nd hisaccounts typicaln theway tmanages o convert potentiallyhreateningncountern-toamomentf heater. isdesire obe entertaineds mmediatelygratified:achof the hieves irwan nterrogatesresentsimselfas an out-of-workntertainer,nd each n turn erformsorKir-wan'samusement.rudeand prefaced ith xcuses,he perfor-mancesare clearly xtemporized;he criminals ave readily

adopted heroles hatKirwan as implicitlyssigned,nd havecooperatedoproduce he pectacle ewants o see.The under-world, uite iterally,ppears s a sort f undergroundheater.Andtheplay sa power lay n anotherense s well.Kirwan,ikemost ouristsf thenetheregions,s accompaniedndprotectedby police etective,ndthedetectiveas uippliedhe ue for heperformancehat esults.efore dmittinghevisitors,he masterofthemansion" as skedwhethert s"bizness r pleasure,"dd-ing hat hifhits usiness oumustelpyourself."O,pleasure yall means," he detectiveeplies.'O he displacementf povertyandcrimento heater,fbusinessntopleasure,s clearlymarked,andtheperformersre willing o confinehemselvesotherolesof a beggars'pera n order o escape moredefinitiveonfine-ment.

The metaphorf the theaterlsopervades ims'sThe Mys-teriesfModern ondon.His intents totake he eader behindthe cenes": When he nteriorf a house s setuponthe tage,thefourth all s always own n order hat he udiencemay eewhat sgoing n. In real ife hedramaswithin hedomesticn-

10Palace and Hovel; or, Phases of London Life, ed. A. Allan 1870;rpt.London:Abelard-Schuman,963),p. 27.








teriorreplayedwi,thhefourth allup.... care s taken hat opasser-byhallhave free ntertainment.amgoing otake hefourth all down to-day."" ndeed, his s not "free ntertain-ment"butthe basisof a literaryndustry;overty,onspiracy,criminalityrepurchasablepectacles,tonceopened o thepub-licandreducednddistanceds theater. 'Do showme some asesofunmitigated isery,'s a requestaidto havebeenmadebyayoungady n search fsensation," rs.Bernard osanquet e-cords nher tudyf the lums, ichand Poor 1896).'2 he re-

questmight asily e that fJames's rincess, ho"liked eeingqueer ypesndexploringut-of-the-wayocial orners"II, 234).

But ifSims's antasyfdisclosure-hisaking ownof thefourth all-has an immediateheatricaleference,treferslsotoanotherort ffantasy.he source fSims's assagemight ellbe thefamiliarassage n Dickens's ombeyndSon nwhichheauthormaginesa good piritwhowould ake hehouse-topsff. . . and show Christian eoplewhatdark hapes ssuefromamidsttheiromes."13here s,however,moremmediateource

than his antasyfa providentialupervision, possible ourcethatmakes nmistakablehenexus fpolicingndentertainmenthavebeentracing:Ifwe couldfly ut of thatwindow and nhand, over ver his reat ity, entlyemove he oofs,ndpeepinatthe ueer hings hich regoing n, he trangeoincidences,theplannings,hecross-purposes,hewonderfulhainof events. . . itwouldmake ll fiction, ith tsconventionalitiesndfore-seen conclusions,most stale and uniprofitable."114he speaker sSherlock olmes,n A. ConanDoyle's ale, A Caseof dentity,"

preciselyhe"policeromance" hatSimsbeginsbydisavowing,andpreciselyheform hatmost nsistently anifestshetwinoperationsf vision ndsupervision,fspectatorshipndincrim-ination, hat he iteraturef theunderworldngages. he im-pulsetoexplore nddisclose heunderworldn det&ctiveictionbecomes ndistinguishablerom fantasyfsurveillance;nd inthefiguref thedetective,eeing ecomes hemode fpower arexcellence.

11 The Mysteriesof Modern London, p. 141.12 Rich and Poor (London: Macmillan, 1896),p. 5.13Dombeyand Son,New Oxford llustratedDickens (London: OxfordUniv. Press,

1950),ch. 47.14 A. Conan Doyle, The SherlockHolmes IllustratedOmnibus (New York: Schock-

en, 1976),p. 31.







514 Nineteenth-Century iction

In "The Adventure f the Copper Beeches,"Watsonconfessesto an uneasiness bout sensationalizinghe netherworld similarto thatfound n Sims nd Greenwood.Holmes's libi isexemplary."youcan hardly e open to a charge fsensationalism,"e main-tains, forout of these ases .. a fairproportion o not treat fcrime, n its legal sense, t all." Holmes,as everyoneknows, e-peatedly cts tomark separation etweenhis own activitiesndthoseof the police detective, nd he claimsrepeatedlyhathis in-terest s in thosematters outsidethepale of the aw."15But hisinvestigationsppear ess to stand "outside" the aw than tooper-ate as a moreefficientxtension f the aw. If Holmes'spolicing sextralegal,tregistersn expansion nd disseminationfpolicingtechniques nd of the apparatus of incrimination:n extensionwhichplacesevenwhat s avowedly egalwithin he boundaries fa generalized owerof surveillance. rime, n Holmes's sense,hasbeen redefined o include n expanding angeof activities, ovingtoward heplacingofevery specit f everydayife under uspicionand under nvestigation.

Such a dreamof absolutesurveillance nd supervisions en-acted by the literature hat the sensational ccounts of Londonmysteries opularize and supplement: he sociological tudiesoftheunderworldhatbegan accumulating n the mid-centuryiththe work of the local statistical ocieties,Thomas Beames's TheRookeries fLondon (1850),and HenryMayhew's ondon Labourand the London Poor (1851-61) and culminating n CharlesBooth's vast Life and Labour of the People of London (1889-1903).

The sociologistlsorepresentsondon as a regionofmysteryto be deciphered, s a largely nexplored nd unknown erritory;the intent s to "map" the netherworld,to 'place it withintheconfines fthe"knownworld."As Asa Briggs uggests,therewasa dominating mphasis n 'exploration.'The 'darkcity'and the'dark continent'were alike mysterious,nd it is remarkable owoften heexploration fthe unknown itywas comparedwith heexplorationof Africaand Asia."L6 Willia-mBooth's In DarkestEngland (1890), for nstance, pens with an extended nalogybe-tween heexploration or he sources f the Nile in Africa nd the

16 VictorianCities (London: Odhams Books, 1963),p. 60.15 bid., pp. 156-57.








explorationor he ourcesfpovertyndcriminalitynLondon.Similarly,ackLondon,n hisstudy fthe London lums,ThePeople oftheAbyss1903), quatesnvestigatingondon ndco-lonialexploration:But0 Cook,O ThomasCook& Son,path-findersnd trail-clearers. . unhesitatinglynd instantly,itheaseandcelerity,ouldyousendme to Darkest frica r Inner-most hibet, uttotheEastEndofLondon .. youknow ot heway.17

As thereferenceo Cook indicates,xplorationf thecityappears s a s,pecializednd exotic pecies ftourism venas itdisplays "colonial" ttitudeoward heunderworld.he secre-tray f a London'sWorkman's ssociation,. J. Pettifer,rtic-ulated n1884 neform hat his olonial ourism astaking:heurban ociologists,ho nthe bsence f nstitutionalundinge-quired ubstantialersonal ealthoundertakeheirtudies,hadbeen alkingftheworkinglassess thoughheywere omenew-found ace, rextinctnimal."'8 educed othe tatus fthe ol-onized rimitiver"naturaluriosity,"he strangeish" fLon-don's"low-lifeeeps" recollecteds exotic specimens." uni-ment, or nstance,n ThePrincess asamassima,ompares ap-tainSholto oa "deep-sea isherman....He throwsisnets ndhauls nthe ittle ishes-therettyittlehining, rigglingishes.They reall for the rincess];he wallowsemdown."HyacinthandMunimentre pokenf s if heywere a sample utofyourshop r a little ogyouhadfor ale.""Youseeyoudoregardmeas a curiousnimal,"HyacinthomplainsothePrincess.holtoand thePrincess hare "taste or xploration"ndan appetitefor ueertypes; holtohunts heslums s he doesthe mperialterritories,ringingack rophiesndspecimensor hePrincess(I, 258-59, 29,292).

There s a more hanmetalphoricesemblanceetweenhiscolonial ttitude owardheslums nd the argermovementsfcolonizationn theperiod.WilliamBooth, hefounderf theSalvation rmy, orked o establishmissions"n darkestng-land, ndthe arger rogrameproposedalledfor he stablish-ment f series f olonies-"TheCityColony, heFarmColony,

17 The People of the Abyss London: Arco, 1962),pp. 17-18.18Transactions,National Associationforthe Promotionof Social Science (NAPSS),

1884,as cited by Philip Abrams, The Origins of British Sociology:1834-1914 (Chi-cago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1968),p. 51.








and theOver-Sea olony"-to dealwith he ocial uestion. ndthe olonizingf theunderworldppears lso n a somewhatif-ferent,nd more omprehensive,orm. ooth omplainshat he"colonies f heathensnd savagesn theheart f our capital . .attracto ittle ttention,"ut nfact heyweredrawing nprece-dented ttention. he secretworldof Londonhas become, sBooth ater dmits, n "open secret,"nd evenas the city on-tinues o be spoken f s an impenetrablenigma, he nigma asbeen systematicallyenetrated.19

The statisticalnscriptionnd mapping f thecity n the aternineteenth entury as been welldocumented, nd is partof whatmightbe called a professionalizationf the problemof theci,ty.20Fromtheformation f the Statistical ocieltyn 1834 to CharlesBooth's Life and Labour, London was meticulously xplored,documented, nd systematized.he intent, s Philip Abramshasobserved,was, n part, o puton record the mode of existence fdifferent amilies-meals and menus, clothingand furniture,

household routines nd divisionof tasks, eligious practices ndrecreation": n short, scrutinynd recording n detail of theeverydayife of the underclasses.21here is a preoccupationwithstatisticalnd enumerativerids,with the aborious ccumulationofdetail,with thedeploymentfa comprehensiveystemf aver-ages and norms. he investigatoronstructsn interpretive atrixcovering irtually very rea and activityn thecity, rom he aver-agetrafficn theLondon streetsnd thecubic feet faircirculatedin the London tenements o a detailed classificationf criminals,

delinquents,nd otherdeviants rom hespecified orm.2For thesociologist, s forJames'sHoffendahl, moving ver n a dry ta-tistical nd scientificir" "humanity,n his scheme,was classifiedand subdividedwitha trulyGermanthoroughness"II, 137, 55).

19General [William] Booth, in Darkest England and the Way Out (London:InternationalHeadquarters of the Salvation Army,1890), pp. 90-93, 16, 91.

20 See, for instance: Asa Briggs,VictorianCities, p. 99; G. M. Young, VictorianEngland: Portrait of an Age, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1953), p. 56;Ruth Glass, "Urban Sociology n Great Britain:A Trend Report,"CurrentSociology,4, No. 4 (1955), pp. 5-19.

21 The Origins of British Sociology,p. 61.22 See, for nstance:HenryMayhew,London Labour and the London Poor, 4 vols.

(London: Griffin, ohn, 1861-62); The Origins of British Sociology, pp. 13-30;Journalof the Statistical ociety,published from1838,and theJournalof theRoyalStatistical ociety,published from18&7;Annals of theRoyal StatisticalSociety, 834-1934 (London: Royal StatisticalSociety,1934).








In the"amateur" nvestigationsf Simsand in thefictivedetective ork fHolmes,t is thepotentialignificancefthemost rivial etail hatnstigatesthoroughcrutinyndsurveil-lance; n the ociologicaltudy, e perceive morediscreetndmore omprehensiveurveillance,eaving o area ofthecity n-charted. he professionalizationf thecity roceedss a tactfuland tactical olonizationf theterritory,nabling n elaborateregularizingndpolicingf the ity. rucially, hat he ociolog-icaldiscoursestablishess a normativecenario, systemfnormsanddeviationshat ffectivelyimposes highly pecificridonthecommonperception fdelinquents."23 regulative ision ofthe ity s imposed,subordinatingn itsuniversalityll pettyr-regularities"ndholdingorthhepossibilityf hat onegloriousprinciple funiversal nd undeviating egularity" hatthe sociol-ogistsenvisioned.24 s the British ociologist redericJ. Mouatobserved n 1885,statistics ave passed from merely escriptivestageand becomeprescriptive:statistics avebecomeparliamen-tary.. and administrative."25

The articulation fthesociological iscourse f thecity s co-extensivewith, nd opensthewayfor, heemergence nddispersalofagencies fsocial training nd social control: hemultiplicationofworkhousesnd reformatories,fvocational nstitutionsnd ofinstitutions ordelinquents, he expansionof themetropolitanpolice and thepenal apparatus.26he nominal function f theseinstitutionss totrain, oeducate, ocorrect, oreform; ut clearly,their ffects to impose generaldisciplinarynd supervisoryu-thority verareas of urban life thatheretoforeave evaded scru-tiny nd control. here is an insistentontinuity etween he theo-

23 Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir (Paris: Gallimard, 1975); my citationsareto the English translationby Alan Sheridan, Discipline and Punish (NeNw ork:Pantheon, 1977),p. 286.

24 Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (London: J. Chapman, 1851), p. 293; HenryThomas Buckle,Historyof Civilization n England, 2 vols. (New York: D. Appleton,1558-61), II, 472. Spencer and Buckle are cited by Alexander Welsh, The City ofDickens (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971),pp. 49, 50.

25 "The History of the Statistical Society of London," Jubilee Volume of theStatisticalSociety London: Stanford,1885), p. 52.

26In addition to the sources already cited, see: T. F. Reddaway, "London in theNineteenthCentury-II: The Origins of the MetropolitanPolice," The Nineteenth

Century and After, 147 (1950), 104-18; Wilbur R. Miller, Cops and Bobbies:Police Authority n New York and London, 1830-1870 (Chicago: Univ. of ChicagoPress, 1977); Leon Radzinowicz,A Historyof English CriminalLaw and itsAdmin-istrationfrom1750, III (London: Stevens,1956).







518 Nineteenth-Century iction

retical preoccupationwith normative cenarios nd the institu-tionalizationfthatnormative ision.And it is notsurprisinghatwhen the ociologist roposes model forurbanreform,hemodelis that f the mosthighly egulated nd supervised nstitution,heprison nd reformatory:In a well-regulatedeformatory aybeseen theeffect fmoral and religiousdisci(pline,ombinedwithgood sanitary onditions,nd a properunionofindustrialnd in-tellectualediucation, pon wayward, gnorant nd hardened na-

tures. uch an institutions a type f the greatworkbeforeus,forthere s nothingdone in a reformatoryhichmight not,withproper appliances, be effected or society t large."27 t is theprison,with ts routines, imetables, ith tsall-encompassingon-troland suipervision,hatserves s the ideal model forthecity.The regulativevision of the cityinstitutionalizes regulativesupervision.

00:

The most evidentfeature f the discourses f thecitythathave been tracing s an insistentwatchfulness, "spy mania,"which ppearsat once as a form f entertainmentnd as a ipoliceaction.The twin itesof thisobsessive urveillance re the theaterand the prison.The PrincessCasamassimanvokes his discursivescenario.James recalled his initial sense of the novel as a self-implicating etwork f watchers: To find Hyacinth's] ossibleadventure nteresting had only to conceivehis watching he samepublic show,the same innumerable ppearances, had watched

myself,nd ofhiswatching erymuch as I had watched" I, vi).This specularrelation s reproducedthroughout he novel, ex-plicitlyn the figures f the,police py nd secret gent,whosedis-guisedpresence s always uspected, ut also in the more ordinaryexchanges f sight n the novel. n The PrincessCasamassima, ee-ing and being seen always mplicitlynvolve n actual or,potentialpower play. Hyacinth, ypically, romises himself o watch hisplaymate Millicent] as he had never done before.She let himknow, s maywell be supposed, hat he had her eye on him, nd

itmustbe confessed hat s regards he exercise f a right f super-visionhe had felthimselft a disadvantage versince the night t

27 G. W. Hastings, Transaci ons, NAPSS, 1857.








thetheatre"II, 65). Seeingmakesfor "right fsupervision"nda powerofcoercion; tis thenexus ofseeing ndpowerthat nowwanttoexamine n The PrincessCasamassima.

Hyacinth dates his "disadvantage"from the "nightat thetheatre," nd it does not takemuch interpretiveressure o seethat pervasive heatricalityunsthroughhenovel.The govern-ingmodeof nteractionetween haractersnvolves series fper-formances: hecharactersngage n the "entertainmentfwatch-

ing" (I, 307) as they re alternatelyecruited for uipplyinguchentertainment"I, 210). Muniment ommandeersHyacinth forRosy'sentertainment"I, 253), as Hyacinth s brought o MedleybythePrincess ecausehis "naivetewouldentertain er" (II, 19).The Princessespecially s repeatedlyreferred o in theatricalterms,s an "actress" erformingn the"mise-en-scenef ife" I,268), and her imitation f a smallbourgeoiseprovidesHyacinthwith"the most finishedntertainmenthe had yetoffered im"(II, 186).

The insistent heatricalityf the novel refers ess to any"dramaticnalogy" hantothereciiprocal atchfulnesshat nvestsevery elation n thenovel. What the theater cenes n the novelenact s an indifferentnterchangefaudienceand playas objectsofobservation. he theaters theprivileged oint ofvantageforan "observationf theLondonworld" I, 189), nd if, s Hyacinthnotes, "one's own situation eem[ed]a play withinthe play" (I,208), it is because one is bothspectatornd spectacle. t is in thetheater hatHyacinthdiscovers hathe is beingwatched, hathe

hasbeenspotted ySholto ndthePrincess, erselfovershadowedby the curtainof thebox, drawnforwardwiththe intention fshieldingher from heobservation f the house" (I, 205). Hya-cinth, n thebalcony nd not in thebox, is notshieldedfrom b-servation,nd his vulnerableposition ndicatesthat,despitetheexchanges f performance etweencharacters,here s a certainasymmetryn this"entertainmentfwatching."Hyacinth, lack-ing all social dimensionswas scarcely perceptibleperson,"ndhe is gratified hatSholtoshould "recognise nd notice him" in

the theater becauseeven so small a fact s thiswas an extensionofhissocialexistence" I, 192).The underclassesexist"onlywhentheyhave becomethe objectof regardof the upper classes.Butthere s a counterside othisvisibility. or if tobe seen s toexistt,








it is also tobe objectified, ixed,nd imprisonedn thegazeoftheother. t is to be reducedto the status fa "favourable pecimen"(1, 257), to "studiesof thepeople-the lower orders" I, 305). In,the argest ense, to be seen is to be encompassed y a rightofsupervision.

To escape supervision, haracters ultivate style f secrecy,adopt disguises n order to see withoutbeing seen; and, indeed,seeing withoutbeing seen becomes the measureof power n thenovel. Hyacinth nsistentlyromotes he secret ife, t timeswith

a certain bsurdity: I don't understand verythingou say,but Iunderstandverythingou hide," Millicent ellsHyacinth. ThenI shall soon become a mysteryo you, for mean from histimeforth o cease to seek safetyn concealment. ou'll knownothingabout me then-for it will be all under your nose" (II, 332). Ifseeing is power, secrecy ssumesa paramountvalue, and if be-neathevery urface secret ruth s suspected,oallow the"truth"toappear s consummatelyo disguiset.28

The relationbetween theatricalecrecy nd power s mostevident n James'srepresentation f the secret ociety. nvokingSims'sparanoidvision of London conspiracies,he secret ocietyappears as an almostprovidential ower because it is both per-vasively resent nd invisible: "the forces ecretlyrrayed gainstthepresent ocial order were pervasive nd universal,n the airone breathed, n the ground ne trod, n the hand ofan acquaint-ance thatone might ouchor the eye ofa stranger hatmight esta moment n one's own. They were above, below,within,with-out, in every ontact nd combination f life; and it was no dis-proof fthem o say t was too odd they hould urk n a particularimiprobable orm. o lurk n improbable ormswasprecisely heirstrength"II, 275). The spymania is universal; he secret ociety,arrayed n improbabledisguises, xercises potentially nlimitedsurveillance, potentially nlimited upervision.

There is another peciesoftheatern The PrincessCasamas-sima thatmakes ven more xplicit henexus ofseeing nd power:the scene of the prison. Hyacinth'smeetingwithhis mother nMillbankprison ppears as another nstance freciprocalwatch-fulness: theyhad too much the air of having been brought o-

28 Mackenziediscussesthe "secretsociety" n CommunitiesofHonor and Love inHenry James,pp. 8-18.








gether imply o look at eachother" I, 51). Mrs.Bowerbank,hejailer, scripts heencounter, taging confrontationscene" andmanaging heaction as an entertainment,xpressinga desirettomake the interviewmore lively" I, 52). She worksto directanoccasion"wantingn brilliancy" nd finallymovesto "abbreviatethe scene" (I, 53, 56). The prison s a theater fpower. Further,the ailer'svisit oPinniesets henovel nmotion; henovelopensunder theshadowand gazeof theprison, in theeyeof thelaw"(I, 7) and under"the steady rb of ustice" I, 8). And what smost

strikingboutMrs.Bowerbanks notmerely errepresentationf"the cold lightof the penal system" nd her "official essimism"'(I, 14),but theway n whichherunrelentingbservation f Pin-nie and Hyacinth s experienced s an accusation fguiltand as,an arrest y the aw. This "emissaryf the aw" (I, 11) imprisonsPinnie in her gaze,and the dressmakers "unable torid herself fthe impression hat t was somehow he arm of thelaw that wasstretchedut to touchher" (I, 13). When Hyacinth s producedfor he ailer's "inspection," e asks:"Do youwant tosee me onlyto look at me?" (I, 18). But "only" to be seen is already o be in-scribedwithin coercivepower relation, o be placed undersur-veillance nd under arrest.Mrs.Bowerbank's resence ransformsthe dressmaker'souse into a prisonhouse. The jailer appears asan "overruling rovidence" I, 46); her tone "seemed to refer t-self to an iron discipline" I, 14), and Pinnie can only respond"guiltily" I, 8) to herquestioning. innie debates aking he "in-nocent hild" to the prison, nd "defendedherself s earnestly sif her inconsistencyad been of a criminal ast" (I, 11, 30). In-dictedby Mrs. Bowerbank'sobservation, he attempts o shieldherself, magining he "comfort o escape from bservation" IL40), and distractserself romthe case" "as a fugitive akes o by-paths" I, 22).

Pinnie, however, s not merelyvictimized nd incriminatedby the turnkey'segal eye. The jailer'svisitdisseminates n arrayof inquisitorial ooks, recriminations,nd betrayals, s the lawstretches o include each character.But the characters re notmerelyvictims; hey n turnbecome"carriers" f the law. Themorediscreetndmore nsidiouspowerofthe aw thatMrs. Bow-erbank epresentss thepowertoreproduce nd extendthe appa-ratus of surveillancend incriminationnto situations hat seemradically emotefrom rime, n the egal sense. The distribution








of mechanisms f incrimination orksnotonlyto victimize hoseit stretchesut to touch, ut more ignificantlyo make tsvictimsalso its disseminators.

The opening sceneof the novel is a concise nstance f this"spreading" f the aw, and a summary f the plotofthe openingsection s a summary f the displacementnd extensionof thetechniquesof penalitythatMrs. Bowerbank ncarnates. innie,for nstance, s not only ncriminated y thisemissaryfthe aw:

she herself ecomesMrs.Bowerbank'smissary. he jailer "wouldlike to see" Hyacinith,nd Pinnie undertakes o"look for he ittleboy," realizing t thesame time thatto make Hyacinth visible"is also tobringhim to udgment: s sheexpressest,"ifyoucouldonlywaitand see thechildI'm sure t wouldhelp you to jiudge"(I, 3, 15). To iproduceHyacinth s to bringhim to the law, andPinnie both undertakes o produce himand proceedsto exercisea disciplinaryuthorityfherowvn. ssheobeysMrs.Bowerbank'sinjunction o supplyHyacinth, he displacesthe injunction nto

his playmate,Millicent. he simultaneouslylacesMillicentunderthe discipline f her observation-waitingto seeif her njunctionwould be obeyed"-and links this njunctionwithan appropri-atelyreduced ttribution fguilt-"you naughtyittlegirl" I, 5).Millie, in turn,replieswitha "gaze of deliberation" nd with arefusalto "betray"Hyacinth to this extendedarm of the law:"Law no,MissPynsent, never eehim"(I, 6, 5). When Hyacinthapears,Pinnierepeatsher accusation f Millicent:"MillicentEn-ning'sa very ad littlegirl;she'll come tono good" (I, 16). Hya-

cinthprotestsnd tries o exculpatehis friend rom betrayalnwhichhe is implicated;his replyfurtheruggests he displace-mentsof guilt and responsibilityhatobsessively roliferatenthisopening cene:"It came overhim,"he observes,thathe hadtoo hastily hifted o her shoulders he responsibilityf his un-seemly ppearance, nd he wishedto makeup to herforthisbe-trayal" I, 17).

These shiftsnd displacementsfcriminalitynd incrimina-tion ndicate generalizedxtension f thepowerofwatchingnd

policing n the novel. In The PrincessCasamassima, olice workiscontagious, contagion hatJames mages s thetransmissionfa certain"dinginess"fromone character o another:Hyacinth"hatedpeople withtoo fewfair nterspaces,oo many smutches








and streaks. illicent enning enerallyad two r three ftheseat least,which he borrowedrom erdoll, ntowhom hewasalways ubbing er nose and whosedinginess ascontagious.twasquite nevitablehe houldhave efthermark nderhisownnosewhen he claimed erreward or omingo tellhimaboutthe adywhowanted im" I, 17). If Hyacinth as shiftedntoMillicent heblame forhis "unseemlyppearance,"eading oPinnie's ccusationsfher, heshiftingf blame ndguilt or-

respondso the hiftingfmark

f"dinginess,"he

tigmaf the

slums.The openingceneplays ut, n an anticipatoryndunder-

stated ashion,he diffusionfpenalityhat raverseshe Prin-cessCasamassima.t is theprison hat rovideshemodelfor hecontagion.he firstrinciplef theprisons isolation,onfine-ment, utwithinhenovelMillbank risontands s the entralandcenteringnstancefthis pread fcriminality;heprison

lookedvery inisterndwicked,o MissPynsent'syes, nd she won-deredwhy prisonhouldhave uch n evil ir f twaserectedntheinterestf ustice nd order-a buildedprotest, recisely,gainst iceand villainy. his particular enitentiarytruck er as about as badandwrongs thosewhoweren it; it threw blightntheface fday,makingherivereem oul ndpoisonousndthe pposite ank,witha protrusionf long-neckedhimneys,nsightlyasometersnd de-posits frubbish, ear he spect fa region t whose xpense he ailhadbeenpopulated. (I, 42)

Viceandvillainy renotconfinedy thecordon anitaire f the

prison; ather,he prison nfectshe surroundingrea,dispersesilts evil ir," ndblights he ity. he prison preadswhat t os-tensiblyrotestsgainstnd s erected o delimit. he atmosphereof theprison xtendsrom he ocal siteoftheprison ntoeveryareaof thenovel, ndtheres no escapefrom hecontagion fcriminality;s Pinnienotes, veryeffortfmitigation. . onlyinvolved ermoredeeply" I, 8). "He had not donehimselfus-tice"; she eemed oplead guiltyo having eenabsurd"; Hya-cinth's erribleross-questioning";likesomeflushedoung ap-

tiveunder ross-examinationorhis ife"; "he wentbail formysincerity":nemightmultiplyhese uotationsndefinitely,ndI abstracthem romheirocalconitextsecause t s themultipli-cationof thesereferences,n the mostbanal and "innocent"ex-








changes n the novel,that stablishes general ontext f policingand incriminationn The PrincessCasamassima. he veryordi-nariness f the allusions ndicates he extent o which fantasy fsupervision nd police work nfiltrateshe novel.

"Whatdo you mean,towatchme?" Hyacinth sks Mr.Vetch,and the question alludes to morethan the fiddler's aternal ver-seeingofHyacinth.The possibilityhatMr. Vetch s a (police pyhas earlier been considered; hemanner n which the possibility

is dismissed xtends ather han imiltshe pymania that henovelreproduces:Hyacinth never uspectedMr. Vetch of being a gov-ernmentalgenit,hough ustachePoupinhad toldhimthat herewerea greatmanywho lookeda gooddeal likethat:not ofcoursewith any purpose of incriminating the fiddler. . . The govern-mental gent n extraordinaryisguises .. became a very amiliartypetoHyacinth, nd thoughhe had nevercaughtone ofthein-famous brotherhoodn the act there were plentyof personstowhom, n theveryface ofthematter, e had no hesitationn at-

tributing he character" I, 108). The secret gentlurks n im-probable forms,nd as in Sims'sfantasies f the anarchicunder-world, pparent nnocence nvites suspicionof concealed crim-inality.This passage denies suspicion nd thepurposeof incrim-ination even as it attributes hecharacter f thepolice spy ndis-criminately.he attributionttaches, t one time or another, ovirtually very haractern thenovel.To Captain Sholto,for n-stance: "Perhaps you thinkhe's a spy,an agentprovocateur rsomething f the sort." But Sholto's form is not improbable

enough, spy"would disguisehimselfmore" (I, 214). It attachesalso to thePrincess,who is suspected f being "an agenton thewrong ide."

The Princess,Madame Grandonitells thePrince, s "muchentangled. he has relationswithpeoplewho arewatchedbythepolice." "And is shewatchedbythepolice?""I can'ttellyou; it'svery ossible-except thatthepolice hereisn't ikethatof othercountries" II, 310). Indeed,thepolicehere are not like they reelsewhere-they re everywhere.ustpriorto thisdiscussion, he

Princess nd Paul Munimenthave eft hehouse at MadeiraCres-centon a conspiratorialmissionthatremains narrative ecret.The spies rethemselvespied upon,as thenarrative bserver om-ments: Meanwhile,t shouldbe recorded, hey adbeenfollowed,








at an interval, y a cautious figure, personwho, in MadeiraCrescent,whenthey ame out of the house, was stationed n theother side of the street, t a considerabledistance.On theirap-pearinghe had retreated little, tillhoweverkeepingthem nsight" II, 301). James nitiallywithholds he identity f theob-serverwho has placed the conspirators nder surveillance.Hisrevelationf that den'tityakes curiousform: The reader carceneed be informed, evertheless,hathis designwas but to satisfy

himself s to thekind of personhiswife was walkingwith" (II,301).The disavowal fanyneed to nform hereader fthefigure'sidentity nlypoints to the reader's nitialmisidentification.hepassageinvites "confusion"of domestic uspicions nd policesurveillance, nd indicates he extentto which all actions n thenovel havecome to resemble police action.All charactersn thenovel are "in danger fplaying hespy" II, 348).

There isno spacefree rom hespymania,from he nfectionofpenality.Medley, he Princess's ountry-houseetreat, rovides

no escape.The Princess here nformsHyacinth hat "I've beenwatching ou. 'm franknough otellyouthat. wantto see more-more--more!" (II, 36). And ifHyacinth eases "to be insignif-icant from he moment" he Princess ees him,he experiences isaccession o significances a subjection o "cross-examination"II,35). A dispersedurveillancehadowsHyacinth, oth n the Prin-cess'swatchfulnessnd in the supervision f his conduct "underthe eye ofthebutler" II, 41). iMedleys, forHyacinth, he"realcountry,"ealnature,butnatiuretself articipatesn the general

policeaction: "Neverhad theold oaksand beeches . . witnessedsuchan extraordinaryeries f confidencesincethe first air thatsought solationwanderedoverthegrassy lopesand ferny ellsbeneaththem" II, 46). The witnessingye of nature nd theal-lusion to theprovidentialupervisionf the Garden ndicatethethorough naturalization" fmechanisms f surveillance nd po-licing n The PrincessCasamassima:nature tself ppears to sup-plement hepolicingfunction.Mrs. Bowerbank arly commentson Florentine'smipendingeathby assertinghat "if she liveda

month she]wouldviolate as Mrs.Bowerbankmight xpressher-self) very stablishedawof nature" I, 14). James's arentheticalinterpolationalls attention o the ailer's characteristic ode ofexpression, erlinkingof "nature"and the"law," her naturaliz-








ing of the penal apparatus. n The Princess Casamassima, hepower of visionand supervisions not confined o thenominalagencies f thepolice: it isenforced ythe"eyesof theworld" II,401). It is finallymipossibleodistinguishetween he"eyeofdayand the observation f the police" II, 410).

The spymania and the ncriminatingechniques f policing

and surveillancerenotconfined utcontagious n The PrincessCasamassima; he prison nd the supervisionnd discipline t im-plies reappear t every urn n thenovel. have ndicated hepro-posal of theprison s a model forthe city t large n theworkoftheLondon sociologists,nd I now want o takeup the ignificanceof thisequation froma somewhatdifferenterspective.MichelFoucault, n his recenthistoryftherise of disciplinary ractices,Surveiller t punir, describes he extension f social mechanismsof surveillance nd discipline nto all areas of modernsociety.

More specifically,e traces he reorganizationfWestern ocietyaroundthemodelofthe "punitive ity":"nearathand, ometimesat the very enter fcities of -the ineteenth entury stands] hemonotonous igure,t once material nd symbolic, f the powerto punish"-the prison.The architecturaligure f this ocial re-organizationsJeremy entham's anopticon, circularbuilding,divided nto cells, surrounding centralobservation ower.ThePanopticonoperates hrough controlling etwork f seeing ndbeingseen: the nmate is seenbut he does not see"; "in the cen-

'tral ower, ne sees everything ithout ver being seen." The in-mate s trapped n a "seeingmachine," rapped n a stateofcon-scious and constant isibility; s a result,he "inscribesn himselfthepowerrelation" n whichhe is caughtup, and "becomes theprinciple f his own subjection."29

London's Millbankprisonwas derivedfromBentham's an-opticonscheme.Convictswere accommodated n six pentagonalranges hat urrounded centralwatchtower-theocus of a prov-idential supervision hat doubled also, and appropriately,s the

prison hapel. JamesvisitedMillbankon a Decembermorning n1884 to collectnotes for The PrincessCasamassima.His descrip-

29 Discipline and Punish, pp. 116, 200, 202, 207, 202-3.








tion of theprison n the novelemphasizes hepowerofwatchingthat the Panopticonemploys.He records he "circular hafts fcells" rangedabout a centralobservatory,nd, further,he "op-portunityf ooking t captives hrough ratedpeeipholes,"t thewomen with"fixed yes"that Pinnie is "afraid to glanceat" (I,47); theinmates re dressedn "perfect rightsfhoods" (I, 46).This last detailrecallsthepractice t Pentonville,where all con-tactwithotherhumanbeings, xcepttheprisonstaff, as forbid-

den, and when convicts lefttheir cells ..

. theywvoremasks withnarrow eye-slitsn order to prevent dentificationy theirfel-lows."30

The Panopticoneffectsn exemplary onjunctionof seeingand power, heconjunction hat xtends rom heprisonthrough-out The PrincessCasamassima. The ipanopticchema,"Foucaultdetails, ". . . was destined to spread throughoutthe social body."Foucault discusses the dispersalof this schema in nineteenth-centuryociety,tspenetrationnto thefactory,heworkhouse,he

reformatory,he chool,nto, nfact, ll those nstitutionshich, swe have seen,the urbancolonizers eployed nd cultivated.Andfurther,hepanoptictechnique nfiltratestiny, veryday"ocialpractices, raversesnd embraces hose minute ocialdisciplines"apparentlyemotefrom hescene of theprison.Confiscatingndabsorbing things f everymoment," n everydayanopticism sfinally niversalized:Policepowermustbear over verything.'31

One final nstitutionalizationf thepanoptictechnology e-mains to be considered.t has recently een suggested hatFou-

cault'shistorymightunderwrite radicalrevision f our sense ofthe "politics"of thenovel,and theproblemthat wantnow totakeup, andwhichhas been implicit ll along,concerns herela-tion between hesedisciplinaryechniques nd the techniques fthenovel, nd moreparticularlyftherealist ndnaturalist ovel,whichappearson the sceneat the same time as thedisciplinarysociety akespower.32oucaultsuggestshat henovel"formspart

310 heppard, London 1808-1870: The Infernal Wen, pp. 375-77.31Discipline and Punish, pp. 207, 213, et passim. See also Jacques Donzelot, La

Police des familles Paris: Les Jlditions e Minuilt,1977).32 am indebted especially to Leo Bersani, "The Subject of Power,"Diacritics,7,No. 3 (1977), 2-21; D. A. Miller, "From roman-policier o roman-police:Wilkie Col-lins's The Moonstone.,"Novel, 13 (1980), 153-70; and Miller's "The Novel and thePolice," Glyph 8: JohnsHopkins Textual Studies (Baltimore: JohnsHopkins Univ.Press, 1981). See also: Paul Foss, "The Lotteryof Life," in Michel Foucault: Power.








ofthatgreat ystemfconstraint y which heWest compelled heeveryday o bring tself nto discourse."-" n what waymay therealistnovel be seen toparticipaten, and even to promote, sys-temof constraint?

It has been observed hat "excellenceof vision s thedistin-guishingmark f realism."34To see" is the dominant erb n therealisttext-"la gastronomie e l'oeil" as Balzac expressedt3-and realistfictions preeminentlyoncernedwith seeing,with a

seeing ndetail.The proximityf thisrealist seeing" tothe over-seeingand policeworkof detectionbecomes explicitly roblem-atic, nd ismost vident, f course, n thesubgenre frealism hatwe havealreadyglanced at,theficitionfdetection.36n detectivefiction, he relationbetweenseeing and policing is taken forgranted; iterally, herangeof the detective's ision s therangeofhis power.That,power perates y placingthe entireworldof thetext under scrutinynd undersurveillance,nd invokes hepos-sibility f an absolute supervision,n whicheverything ay be

comprehendednd "policed,"and in which the mosttriflinge-tail becomespotentiallyncriminating.ealisticfiction,n a morediscreetnd,for hat eason,morecomprehensive anner, eploysa similar actic fdetection; hetechniques f surveillance nd de-tection raversehetechniques f therealisticnovel.Emerson,n-stancing wift, otes"how realistic r materialisticn treatmentofhis subject"the novelist s: "he describes is fictitiousersonsas iffor thepolice."37ndeed, detective ictionmerely iteralizestherealist epresentationalcrutiny,tsfascination ith eeing nd

wi,thhetelling ignificancefdetail, nd laysbarethe policingf

Truth, Strategy, d. Meaghan Morrisand Paul Patton (Sydney: Feral, 1979); JeffreyMehlman,Revolution and Repetition: Marx/Hugo/Balzac (Berkeley:Univ. of Cal-iforniaPress, 1977),pp. 123-24; and Lennard J.Davis, "Wicked Actionsand FeignedWords: Criminals, Criminality, nd the Early English Novel," Yale French Studies,59 (1980), 106-18.

33"The Life of InfamousMen," in Michel Foucault: Power, Truth, Strategy, . 91.84 Mehlman,Revolution and Repetition,p. 124.85 Balzac, dted by Donald Fanger, Dostoevsky nd Romantic Realism (Cambridge:

Harvard Univ. Press, 1965), p. 30.36 On the detective tory, ee D. A. Miller, "From roman-policier o roman-police:

Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone," and Pierre Macherey,A Theory of Literary Pro-duction,trans.GeoffreyWall (London: Routledge, 1978), pp. 18-36.

37English Traits, in The Selected Writingsof Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. BrooksAtkinson New York: Modern Library, 1950), p. 647.








the ealthat s the ealist roject.We novelists,"ritesola, arethe xamining agistratesfmen nd their assions."38

The juridical xpressionfthe ims f the ealist oveliste-cursfrequently.here s, for nstance, eorgeEliot's tatementin AdamBede (ch. 17) of thenovelist'sbligationowrite as ifI were n thewitness-boxarrating y xperiencen oath," ndGuy de Maupassant'svowal, n his prefaceoPierre tJean, otell "la verite,ienque la verite,t toute a v6rit6."39he con-vergencef the iterarynd the egalrecurs lso n attacks n thealleged llicitnessnd "illegality"f the ealistic ovel; husW. S.Lilly,writingn 1885, sserts hat,n the realist nd naturalistnovel, everywheret thebottomhere s filthl'ordure). hoseproceedingsn the ourts f usticewhich rom ime o time ringit to the surface-like n abscess-are merely n experimentalnovelunfoldingtself,hapterfter hapter, eforehepublic."40The realist ovel s seento proceeds a legal action. he realistnovelists the xamining agistratefeverydayife.

There s a complementaryovementn realistic iction: o-ward documentationfphenomenan precise etail, nd towarda supervisionf those henomena. s Zola conciselyxpressest,"thegoal of the xperimentalethod . . is to study henomenainorder o control hem."4' he realistshare, ith ther oloniz-ersof theurban cene, passion o see and documentthings sthey re," nd thispassion akes heform f a fantasyf surveil-lance, placing f thetiniest etails f everydayifeunder cru-tiny.s itnotpossible o discovern this antasyf surveillance

point f ntersectionetween he ealistext nda societyncreas-38 1tmileZola, "The Experimental Novel," in Documents of Modern Literary

Realism, ed. George J. Becker (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1963), p. 168.39 Adam Bede, ed. Stephen Gill (Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1980), ch. 17; Pierre

et jean (New York: Scribner's,1936),p. xxxvi.40 "The New Naturalism," in Documents of Modern Literary Realism, p. 277.

Perhaps the most extraordinary ndictmentof the realisit nd naturalist novelistsoccurs in Max Nordau's influentialDegeneration (New York: D. Appleton, 1895).Nordau classifies hese novelists,preeminently ola, in accordancewith the classifi-cation of criminal typesdeveloped by the criminologistCesare Lombroso, accusesthem of "crime coummitted ith pen and crayon" (p. 558), and calls for the insti-

tution of a "criticalpolice" (p. 535) to return them to the law; at the same time,however,Nordau notes the resemblancebetween the realist text and the "policereports" (p. 489).

41 "The Experimental Novel," p. 176.








inglydominatedby institutionsf discipline, egularization,ndsupervision-bythedispersednetworks f the "police"?

There are a numberofways n which the relationbetweenthenoveland the aw can be explored.There is,for nstance,nintriguingesemblance etween herealist ypologiesfcharacterand thetypologiesrroposedythe ate nineteenth-centuryrimi-nologists,hiefly esareLombroso, resemblancehatConradex-ploits n The SecretAgent, nothernovelof the London spyma-nia.42More generally, ne mightnote the encompassing ontrolovercharacter nd actionwhich the ealist nd naturalist octrineof "determinism"ecures.As Leo Bersanihas recentlyuggested,the realist'smethodworks to reduce "the eventsof fiction o aparadeofsameness. or example, twould not be wholly bsurdto suggestthat Balzac novelbecomesunnecessarys soon as itsexposition s over.The entirework s alreadycontained n thepresentationf thework, nd thecharactersmerely epeat n dia-logue and actionwhathas alreadybeen establishedbout them n

narrative ummnaries.heir livesmirror he expository ortraitsmade of them t the beginning f thenovel."43 he linear orderand 'progressionf the realisticnovel enablesthe novel to "prog-ress" only n a direction lways preestablished.ndeed, it is as a"repetition" hatHyacinth xperiences isevery ttempt o breakwithhis origins nd "antecedents,"o breakwith his "naturalist"determinants f environmentnd heredity.His recruitmentoassassinatethe ukepresents tself s "the dea of a repetition,"sthe "horror f thepublic reappearance,n his person, f the im-

bruedhandsof hismother" II, 419). This "youngman n a book"(I, xiv) expressesn interestn the "advanced nd consistenteal-ists" I, 315), but this"consistency,"keyword n thenovel,be-comes nothernamefor n entrapmentn a (narrative) epetition.

In its fixing fconsistent ty,pes,"nd in itspredictiveontrolover narrative ossibility,he realistic extgains a thoroughmas-tery ver ts charactersnd their ctions-a twinmasteryf intel-ligibilitynd supervision. he PrincessCasamassima as been re-gardedas James's primaryxcursion nto therealistic r natural-

42 On Conrad's use of Lombroso see John E. Saveson,"Conrad, Blachwood's, andLombroso," Conradiana, 6 (1974), 57-62.

43 Baudelaire and Freud (Berkeley:Univ. of California Press, 1977), p. 121.








isticmode.4The novel,n ts hoice f ubjectsnd n itsdescrip-tivemethod, isplaysn affinityith heconsistentealists;ndcertainly,t everywhereisplayshat antasyf urveillancehich,I havebeen uggesting,iesat theheart f therealist roject. utwe notice hat his urveillanceecomesnmanyways he ubjectandnotmerely hemode f thenovel, ndsuch foregroundingof thenovel's actics f supervisionndicates, ithinimitshatwillattempto describe, ames's xposurenddemystificationf

therealistmaniafor urveillance,nd his attempto disown hepolicing hat t mplies.Perhaps hemost owerfulactic f supervisionchieved y

thetraditionalealist ovel nheresn its dominantechniquefnarration-the tyle f "omniscientarration" hichgrantshenarrative oice n unlimiteduthorityver henovel's world,"a world horoughlynown nd thoroughly astered ythepan-optic"eye"of thenarration.he technique f omniscientarra-tion, s is frequentlyoted, ives o the narrator providential

vision f the haractersnd action. t is thefantasyf such nab-solute anopticismhatwe havepreviouslyracedn Sims'siftingof thefourth all,and in Dickens's nd Doyle'sfantasyf "re-moving he roofs" nd viewing he "qiueer hingswhich regoingon." In The Princess Casamassima, uch omniscient isionis at-tributed o the master evolu-tionaries:They know everything-everything. hey're like the great God of the believers:they'researchers f hearts; nd not only of hearts, ut of all a man's ife-his days,his nights, is spoken,his unspokenwords.Oh they o

dee,p nd they o straight!"II, 383). Hoffendahl's od-like oweris also thepowerof the omniscient arrator, powerof unlimitedoverseeing.

But ifJames nscribesn his text n image of comprehensiveand providential upervision, he narrativemethod of thenoveldeparts rom hispanoptic echnique.As a numberof critics aveshown, nd as James sserts n his preface o the novel, The Prin-

44 Lyall H. Powers, in HenzryJames and the Naturalist Movement,claimns hatJames had, by the mid-1880s, made his peace" with the naturalists:"He had by

this ,timecome dose to sharing fully the aesthetic persuasions of the Realist-Naturalistgroup" (p. 41). It is, rather,James'sattemptsto disaffiliate imselffromthe realist and naturalist"group," and from the politics that theirmethod implies,that I am emphasizinghere.








cessCasamassima arks technicalurningoint nJames'sa-reer: turningwayfrom hestyle f omniscientarrationo-wards hetechnique fthe "central ecordingonsciousness"r''centralntelligence."hat technique isplacesheauthorityfthenarrativeoice nddisavowsnydirectnterpretiveuthorityover he ction.t canbe saidthatn The Princess asamassima,omniscientuthoritys helduptoscrutiny,nd ndicted,nbeingtransferredo,ordisplacedpon, hemastersf therevol,ution.

Can -thisupervisoryower, owever,e so easily isowned?In his preface,amesmagines isobservationftheunderworldas a form fespionage: isvision f London s that f "thehabit-ual observer. . thepedestrianrowler"I, xxi-xxii). utat thesame ime, edisclaimsnyviolationrmanipulationfthefig-ureshe"merely"bserves:I recall ulling o wires, nockingtnoclosed oors, pplyingor o authentic'nformation"I, xxii).It is Hoffendahl,n thenovel,who s the rch wire-puller":hehad nhishand nnumerabletherhreads"II, 55).And t s this

puppeteeringhatJames isavows.uthaving enied uch ma-niipulativeower, amesroceedsoreclaim hat ehasdismissed:"To haunt hegreat ity ndbythishabit openetratet, magi-natively,n as many laces s,possible-that as tobe informed,thatwastopullwires,hatwasto opendoors"I, xxii).

James istinguishesis"imaginative"enetrationf the ityfromhemanipulativeisionndsupervisionfthe onspiratorialplotters.he implicationsclear:James ould laim hat is m-aginative ire&pullings not an act ofsupervision,that is deep

searchingfhearts,f pokenndunspoken ords,hat is eeingand"haunting"fthe ity anbedistinguishedromhepolicingandspymaniathat hishaunting fthegreat ity o closely e-sembles.t is ustsuch separationetweenmere" eeing, on-sciousness,ndknowledgendan exercise fpowerwhich havebeenquestioning.amesffershe libi of a "powerless"magina-tiontoextricate imselfromhecharge fparticipatingn thespymaniawhich henovel verywherengages. utJameswouldhaveno need to insist n thedistinctionfit werenotalready

jeopardized,lready hreatenedy thecompellingesemblancebetween ishauntingndperpetualrowlingnd the urveillanceandpolicing romwhichhewoulddisengageimself.








It becomesclear thattheattempt n thepartof thewriterswe haveexamined odisown he policing hat hey xercise an beseenas a "cover"for morediscreet nd comprehensive olicyofsupervision,nd it is as sucha rusethat thinkJames's isplacingof powerand authorityworks.The recession f narrative uper-vision n The PrincessCasamassima ppearsas one furthershift-ing ofthe shame," displacing f responsibility,ulpability,nd,in thetermswhich henovel provides,riminality.he shiftingf

narrative uthoritymakesreferenceo an uneasiness oncerningthe shameofpower. fJames's ovel is systematicallyhestory fa criminal ontinuity etween eeingand power,thiscontinuityis finally isowned. f Jamesworks oward demystifyingf therealist policing f thereal, this policework s finally emystified,recuperateds the"innocent"workofthe magination.

From one point ofview, t is the ncompatibilityf thenoveland thesubjectof powerwhich s the"message"of The PrincessCasamassima: t is the incompatibilityf aesthetic nd political

claims that eads to Hyacinth's uicide.Criticsof the novel haverestated hismessage, nsisting, ith approvalor disapprobation,that thenovelsacrificests politicalreferenceso technicalpreoc-cupations. n his preface, ameshimself bserves hat-the nder-worldof London "layheavyon one's consciousness"I, vi). Thephrase nvites s to read "conscience" or consciousness,"nd thesubstitutionegistersn miniaturewhathas been seen as James'ssubstitutionn The PrincessCasamassima f itheordeal of con-sciousness that s, thework's echnique)formattersf socialcon-

science its political ubject).Thus it has been arguedthat"Hya-cinthRobinson'ssensitive onsciousnesss themirrorwhichcon-trols he shape" of thenovel, thatJames's ignorancen the faceofthe reality, he greatgreyBabylon,whichwas nearest tohim"compelledhimto distort hatreality ycircumscribingtwith a"controlling nd bizarre consciousness," nd that,finally, histechnicalpreoccupationmeans that The PrincessCasamassima's"theme s not politicalat all."45As Leo Bersanipointsout,"it has

45 The quotations are from,respectively:J. M. Leucke, "The Princess Casamas-

sima: Hyacinth'sFallible Consciousness," n Henry James: Modern Judgments, d.Tony Tanner (London: Macmillan, 1969),p. 184; John Goode, "The Art of Fiction:Walter Besant and HenryJames,"pp. 280, 279; J. A. Ward, The Search for Form(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1967), p. 115.








been decided by politicallyonscious'Anglo-Americanritics hatJames s a nonpoliticalnovelist."46 riticsof The PrincessCasa-massima, nd of James'sworkgenerally, ave restated hediscon-tinuitywhichJameshimself roposed, nforcing breakbetweentechnique nd subject,betweenwaysof seeing nd thesubjectofpower. t is maintained hat "in his quest for quintessential o-cial reality hat was also an alien reality, amesmustnecessarilyhave found himself ecoilingupon the merely sychological nd

even epistemological, he merely maginative-upon fantasy."47But ifJames's nly "politicalnovel" advertises radical conflictbetweenpolitics nd the novel,there s, working gainst his im-ple polarization, criminal ontinuity etweenthe techniques fthe novel and those ocial technologies f powerwhich nhere nthese techniques. t is in the rigorous ontinuity stablished nJames's ovelsbetween eeing,knowing, nd exercising ower hatthe politicsof the Jamesian ext ppears, nd it is this ontinuitythat have been tracing n The PrincessCasamassima.

University f California, erkeley

46 "The Subject of Power," p. 10.47 Mackenzie,CommunitiesofHonor and Love in HenryJames,p. 22.

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