Tag: Henry James

Henry James crafted some of the most famous novels known to fans of classic fiction—The Wings of the Dove and The Portrait of a Lady top of mind for me—but he was also a travel writer.

Henry James’ Collected Travel Writings, a lovely pair of slipcovered books, are split into two volumes, The Continent and Great Britain and America. In the section of The Continent titled “Italian Hours,” his essay “A Chain of Cities,” has him visiting the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, a sprawling church with its first stone laid by Pope Gregory IX on July 17, 1228—the day after the canonization of the saint after which the Basilica is named.

About the Basilica, he notes, “This twofold temple of St. Francis is one of the very sacred places of Italy, and it would be hard to breathe anywhere an air more heavy with holiness.” This ecclesiastical weightiness includes frescoes filled with motifs that I found held the same pattern as a slew of design products being released in April 2016, so I turned James’ visit to the cathedral into a literary design adventure. He says of the lower cavern on the church: “The tone of the place is a triumph of mystery, the richest harmony of lurking shadows and dusky corners, all relieved by scattered images and scintillations.”

The images he references are frescoes by Giotto and his artistic contemporaries during medieval times, the former’s paintings illustrating important events in the life of St. Francis. James singles out four that are painted on the ceiling above the altar of the lower chapel to proclaim how completely the artist was “in proportion to his means, a genius supremely expressive.” I see even the travel writing of Henry James equally expressive in these small books chock full of large responses to the world.