Confidence

First serialised in Scribners magazine in 1879 and published in full during the same year, Confidence is a light romantic comedy of marriage declined and accepted. The plot centres upon three characters, Bernie Longueville, an artist, Gordy Wright, a scientist, and Angie Vivien without occupation but a strong, gregarious female. When Gordy asks Bernie whether he should marry Angela, Bernie, having already met her, advises against it. Yet later, when Bernie again meet Angela, he realises that he loves her himself and proposes. Confidence is unusual for James in that it is light and comedic. While there are familiar themes including the pressure to marry, it is the treatment that marks it out. There is also an impression that James was keen to provide a resolution in the set of relationships and critics have suggested that the one provides, and its means, was somewhat contrived.