In the Cage

Name: In the Cage
ISBN: 9787020142477

Henry James / 王越西People's Literature Publishing House · ChinaSep 2020

4.2

Word count: 84K words
Chapters: 32
ISBN: 9787020142477

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Summary

An unnamed English girl works as a telegraphist at a post office branch in the busy heart of London. Though her workplace is a "cage" of a telegraph room, her ambitions reach far beyond it. One day, this clever, sensitive, highly retentive and imaginative operator deciphers from the cryptic telegrams customers hand her for transmission certain secrets she was never meant to know, and finds herself drawn against her will into a love affair among the upper classes... First published in 1898, the novella In the Cage is strikingly original in conception and, together with the slightly earlier The Turn of the Screw of the same year, stands as a representative novella of Henry James's later career, long held in high regard by critics. The French postmodern philosophers Deleuze and Guattari offered a subtle analysis of the novel in their co-authored A Thousand Plateaus. This is the first translation and publication of the novel in China in the more than one hundred and twenty years since its appearance. Note on the source text: In the Cage first appeared as a single volume, published in London by the British publisher Duckworth & Co. in August 1898; in September of the same year, the American publisher Herbert S. Stone & Co. brought out the American edition in New York. Because Henry James lived in London for much of this period and was able to personally guide and supervise the editing and publication of the British editions of most of his works at the time, the British editions often reflect James's *revisions more faithfully than the American ones; the Library of America edition of Henry James's complete works therefore used the 1898 British edition when including this novel. The present translation is made from the Library of America edition.

Editor's review

In the Cage is a taut and profound novella from Henry James's middle period, first published in 1898. With its keen psychological insight and delicate social observation, it sketches a picture of the life of a lower-middle-class telegraphist in late Victorian London. The story centers on a young woman working at a post office who is daily "in touch" with the outside world through the telegraph, yet physically confined behind a small cage-like counter. Through this highly symbolic setting, James explores human alienation in modern society, class barriers, the estrangement between information and truth, and the subtle agency of the individual within a vast social machine. Compared with James's better-known large novels, such as The Portrait of a Lady or The Wings of the Dove, this book is compact in length but consummate in technique, and especially brilliant in capturing the faint, subtle shifts within its characters' minds. The heroine's process of piecing together other people's lives from telegraph fragments and building an imagined world is not only a literary record of an early form of communications technology but also anticipates modern questions about how media shape perception and relationships. The language is dense, full of irony and suggestion, and demands the reader's patience for its overtones. For understanding James's creative trajectory from international themes to an analysis of the internal mechanisms of British society, this book is a key and fascinating point.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Henry James's work who wish to understand the stylistic transition of his middle period
Literary lovers who prefer psychological realism and enjoy delicate inner portrayal and refined irony
Readers interested in exploring social class, gender roles and early modernity
Readers who appreciate short or novella-length narratives and seek deep themes within a limited space

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strong plot conflict or a fast narrative pace
Readers impatient with extensive psychological description and subtle social dialogue

Reading tips

It is advisable to learn something of late Victorian British society first, especially middle-class living conditions and means of communication, to help understand the textual details
While reading, pay attention to the multiple symbolism of the core image of the "cage"—as physical space, and as the limits of social class and perception
It may be worth comparing the way the heroine processes telegraph messages with how we handle fragmented information in today's age of social media; the work's prescience will become apparent

About the publisher

People's Literature Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

People's Literature Publishing House publishes across classical literature, foreign literature, documentary writing and folk literature, with 492 titles in its catalogue. Representative books range from the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Lao She's Teahouse and Longxu Ditch in the Selected Works of Lao She, as well as translated foreign literature such as Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Dante's Divine Comedy and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, alongside documentary and fictional works including Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and João Guimarães Rosa's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Its authors include Chinese writers such as Lao She, translators such as Shen Emeri and Li Wenjun, and foreign authors such as James Wood. Overall, the house has a strong record in editing classic works and translating foreign literature, with a publishing character that bridges Chinese and foreign writing and values textual quality.

版权信息
序一
开创心理现实主义小说先河的文学艺术大师——“亨利·詹姆斯小说系列”序二
翻译底本说明
第一章
第二章
第三章
第四章
第五章
第六章
第七章
第八章
第九章
第十章
第十一章
第十二章
第十三章
第十四章
第十五章
第十六章
第十七章
第十八章
第十九章
第二十章
第二十一章
第二十二章
第二十三章
第二十四章
第二十五章
第二十六章
第二十七章
后记

FAQ

What are the main features of this book compared with Henry James's other works?

Compared with his famous international-theme novels, this book focuses on British domestic society, is concise in length, takes a lower-middle-class woman as its central viewpoint, and explores class, information and human alienation more concentratively, with extremely delicate psychological description and strong symbolic suggestion.

Why is the "telegraph" in the story's setting important for understanding the work?

The telegraph, an emerging communications technology of the nineteenth century, is the key vehicle of the plot. It is both the window through which the heroine peeks into others' lives and a symbol of her own reification and isolation. The speed and partiality of information transmission stand in tension with the stagnation of her life and the richness of her imagination, profoundly revealing the paradox of modern communication.

How difficult is this book to read?

Moderately to fairly difficult. Henry James's sentences are complex and his rhetoric refined, and the narrative relies on extensive inner activity and subtle social implication rather than straightforward plot progression. Readers need to stay focused and carefully ponder the psychological and social meanings behind the words.

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About the author

Henry James Author · American (British from 1915) · 1843–1916

Henry James (1843–1916) was an American novelist and literary critic, born in New York and died in London. He lived in Europe for many years and settled in Britain, taking British citizenship in 1915 to protest the United States' non-participation in the war. His representative works include The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl and the novella The Turn of the Screw. James is known for his "international theme," often depicting the moral and emotional predicaments of characters caught between European and American cultures. He is also noted for psychological realism, with delicate prose that foregrounds the inner consciousness of his characters. This library holds eighteen of his works, including novels, selected short stories and an English-language original edition, generally classified under foreign literature and literary appreciation.

王越西 Author

Public information about Wang Yuexi is limited. Only two works by this author are held in the library, both classified as foreign literature: The British Agent (The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, Volume 5) and In the Cage. Judging from these two titles, Wang Yuexi's translation or editorial work centers on Maugham's short stories, whose themes often involve espionage and the observation of human nature, and whose style is marked by concise narration, clever plot twists, and delicate psychological portrayal. Maugham's short fiction frequently reveals the absurdity and complexity of ordinary life in a calm, restrained tone, and the two works presented here continue that orientation. Because information such as dates of birth and death, nationality, education, and professional positions cannot be confirmed, no speculation is offered here; this note merely describes the direction of the author's work based on the available bibliographic information, for readers' reference.