The Education of Henry Adams · Chapter
XIII: The Perfection of Human Society (1864) explained
Henry Adams reflects on his father's social success in London after the Trent Affair, and his own immersion in English society as a private secretary.
What happens
Henry Adams reflects on his father's social success in London after the Trent Affair, and his own immersion in English society as a private secretary. He describes the peculiarities of Victorian social life, the limitations of his education, and his observations of key figures and events, including the reception of Garibaldi and Mme. de Castiglione.
Themes in this chapter
Education and Self-Formation
Adams reflects on his failed education in London society, which he considers useless for earning a living or for any other context.
Social Class and Identity
The chapter explores the nuances of English social hierarchy, the role of the American Minister as a kind of peer, and the shifting standards of social value.
American Exceptionalism and Europe
Adams contrasts American and English social life, noting the peculiarities of London society and the inapplicability of its lessons elsewhere.
Characters to notice
- Charles Francis Adams
Minister Adams gains a unique social position in London after stopping the rebel rams, becoming a kind of 'American Peer of the Realm.'
- Henry Adams
Adams reflects on his own social education in London, feeling at home yet aware of the uselessness of this training elsewhere.
- Giuseppe Garibaldi
Garibaldi receives all London at Stafford House, with duchesses worshipping at his feet, a spectacle that Adams finds perplexing.
- Monckton Milnes
Milnes is mentioned as an example of the grotesque style of London toilette, like him on horseback in Rotten Row.
- Algernon Swinburne
Swinburne is noted as one who might be fit to interpret the complex social phenomena of Garibaldi and Mme. de Castiglione.
- Victor Hugo
Hugo is similarly mentioned as capable of addressing the same social complexities.
- Lord Palmerston
Palmerston's personal influence from 1860 to 1865 created a political interregnum that affected the social atmosphere.
- William Ewart Gladstone
Gladstone is listed among the liberal, literary figures in whose houses the American Legation felt at home.
Key passages
“Minister Adams’s success in stopping the rebel rams fixed his position once for all in English society.”
Charles Francis Adams's diplomatic victory over the Confederate ironclad rams secured his social standing in England permanently.
Highlights the pivotal moment that elevated Adams's status.
“The young man knew no longer what character he bore. Private secretary in the morning, son in the afternoon, young man about town in the evening, the only character he never bore was that of diplomatist.”
Henry Adams felt he had no fixed identity, shifting between roles of secretary, son, and socialite, but never acting as a diplomat.
Illustrates Adams's confusion about his social role and education.
“He conceived that the perfection of human society required that a man should enter a drawing-room where he was a total stranger, and place himself on the hearthrug, his back to the fire, with an air of expectant benevolence.”
Adams believed the ideal of social grace was to enter a room full of strangers and stand confidently by the fireplace as if kindly attending a charity event.
Describes Adams's idealized but impractical vision of social perfection.
“Mme. de Castiglione entered, the famous beauty of the Second Empire. How beautiful she may have been, or indeed what sort of beauty she was, Adams never knew, because the company, consisting of the most refined and aristocratic society in the world, instantly formed a lane, and stood in ranks to stare at her.”
When the renowned beauty Mme. de Castiglione arrived, the aristocratic crowd immediately parted and stared so intensely that she fled the house.
Recounts a striking social spectacle that Adams found both fascinating and meaningless.
