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the old mansion of Madame de Vionnet obviously are inherited for centuries. Her valuable possessions reveal the “private honour” (173) of her grand family history in connection to “some prosperity of the First Empire” (172). Her “old accumulations that had possibly from time to time shrunken than on any contemporary method of acquisition or form of curiosity” (172) impress him. Strether’s fondness of her precious possessions inherited for centuries is originated from his pursuit of archaic things, which brings him a familiar sense of spatial intimacy.
4.3 The Interior
Strether’s inner upmost longing for freedom, a renewal of his life released from the Puritan restrictions in Woollett, is further exhibited in his spatial experiences in two of his young compatriots’ dwellings, the chic apartment of Chad Newsome and the shabby room of John Little Bilham. Strether’s great admiration for these two young intelligences, Chad Newsome and Little Bilham who come from two different family backgrounds, is connected to the revival of his prolonged youthful spirit.
4.3.1 Chad Newsome’s Apartment on Boulevard Malesherbes
Chad’s dwelling accounts explicitly for its host’s refinement and a different life style. Strether’s change of his prejudice toward Chad is shown from his first visit to Chad’s house. In Book Second, Strether strolls on Boulevard Malesherbes where Chad’s apartment is situated. Strether’s astonishment and fondness of its outlook stem from its fanciful “[h]igh broad clear” outlook with “the complexion of the stone”
made of “a cold, fair grey stone warmed and polished by life” (James 68). His love of Chad’s house is exhibited when he perceives his place as “a charming place; full of beautiful and valuable things” (75). Though the host Chad is absent, he visits his apartment on the third floor (where he meets young Little Bilham, a friend of Chad’s,
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who is a poor apprentice studying painting in Paris). Strether’s shock at and
appreciation of Chad’s transformation when he finally meets him can be traced from his shock with Chad’s “refinement” (99). He is curious to fathom how Chad’s manner is being transformed in Paris. Out of his new discovery of Chad’s appearance and temperature comes his impression that it is a “wonderful” change (98). Despite in Book Twelfth, it turns to be an irony that Strether judges Chad as a “creature” (408) exploiting Madame de Vionnet’s deep love for him.
Strether’ pursuit of different life style is revealed in his observation of “a different stamp” (317) in one festive gathering in Chad’s apartment. In Book Tenth, the most festive scene that he has ever seen in his life appears in Chad’s room. He is infatuated with his surrounding images, which contain Chad’s young guests made “by selection” (317), and sensuous things displayed — the quantity and quality of the meals, the decorations, the light, the sound, and the fragrance. His perception of the scene containing “the overflow of hospitality” and “the high tide of response” exposes a strong influence upon his mind (317). Strether’s spatial intimacy in connection with his spirit of youth is obviously revived in Chad’s dwelling.
4.3.2 Little Bilham’s Shabby Place
Strether is attracted to Little Bilham’s creative power of painting contemporary art, his dignity despite his shabby place, and his innocence. Like his appreciation of Chad’s refined transformation, he finds “an equal fond of familiarity” (James 88) in Little Bilham. He admires Little Bilham’s “beautiful intelligence” (88), not only with his company of the walking tour in the Louvre but also with his creativities in
painting. Little Bilham’s modern paintings displayed in his place symbolizes a spirit of youth, which ignites Strether’s youthful spirit connected with his own artful pursuit in his twenties. Young artists like Little Bilham are nourished in a contemporary
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metropolitan Paris, which provides an infusion of old and new landscapes that stimulate the young art apprentice’s creativities.
Strether is also profoundly affected to Little Bilham’s dignified manner in his poor place, which is revealed from his descriptions such as “fresh” with “an odd and engaging dignity,” even though the neighborhood in which he lives is “sort of social shabbiness” (89). Strether is attracted to the charm of his place: "these things wove round the occasion a spell to which our hero unreservedly surrendered” (89). In this social occasion, his awareness of his changed perspective from a pragmatist to an idealist is unveiled from their talks. He enjoys the intellectual talks with Little Bilham and his “ingenuous compatriots” (89). Their “candour” surpasses the candor of Woollett because of their “delicate daubs and the free discriminations” (89) involving
“references” and “enthusiasms and execrations” (89). Despite they are with the strange outlook: “red-haired and long-legged” and “quaint and queer and dear and droll” unlike decent people he knows in Woollet (89). All these direct
communications and sharing of intellectual thoughts regarding contemporary art have interwoven into Strether’s enjoyment in their intellectual talks. He is impressed by their talks such as “the aesthetic lyre” drawing from the “wonderful airs” (89).
Strether’s observation of Little Bilham’s life style with an “admirable innocence” (89-90) marks out his appreciation and comprehension of their golden qualities. His appreciation of “the small sublime indifferences and independences” in Little Bilham’s poor place (89) shows his intimacy and identification with them. He is overwhelmed in “its overflow of \taste and convictions and its lack of nearly all else”
(89). His empathy with his surrounding images as well as his nearness to Little Bilham are in connection to his own prolonged young spirit like his young compatriots.
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Strether’s pursuit of freedom is in association with his longing for being a cosmopolite who casts out local constraints and prejudices. It could be seen from his meditation: he wants to be able to “like his specimen with a clear close conscience” at a world in which he has no “prejudice” (88). His admiration for Little Bilham is based on his “small artist-man’s way” (88) out of innocence, and his “serenity” (88) as a poor painter. He sees what he wants in Little Bilham, who is quite comfortable with his shabbiness. The intelligent Little Biham’s dignified manner in contrast to his shabby place impresses Strether.
Strether’s belated vision of youth is shown from his advice to Little Bilham, who is of Chad’s age but with different family backgrounds. The poor Little Bilham does not have family support, with whom Strether feels to whom he can relate. He advises Little Bilham to try the “affair of life” (153) — the “wonderful” (152) experience that Strether has missed in his prime. James’ perception of his free youthful spirit in the Louvre is akin to his hero Strether, who is always looking for freedom to revive his youthful vigor in Paris. James writes down his own topophilic emotions for the “wondrous Galerie d’Apollon” (196) in the Louvre in his early days.
Even after many years, James terms his “extraordinary experience” in the Louvre as
“a splendid scene of things,” from which he gains his “historic vision” from his
“intellectual experience” (196). Likewise, not only does Strether feel “fresh” (89) in Little Bilham’s shabby place, but his encounter with Chad in his chic house makes him feel “young” (100). Both James’ “young consciousness” (156) and Strether’s
“stray spirit of youth” (66) are closely bound up with their early spatial experiences in Paris.
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