ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explore the role of Gibbon in fashioning James’ narrative unconscious with a distinctively republican “enthusiasm of liberty.” If Gibbon’s historiographic agenda can be described as “the emergence of a shared civilization of manners and commerce” out of the “feudal disorders” (barbarism, religion) of the European past (Pocock), then James’s adoption of this agenda is equivocal. Although in principle a rationalist liberal, Jameson capitalized, in The Wings of the Dove and other narratives, on the romantic potential of barbarous-cum-religious superstition (Milly’s sacrifice) in the face of a mercenary commercial age and depicted civilization in an ironic light.
