The Education of Henry Adams · Chapter
XIV: Dilettantism (1865–1866) explained
Henry Adams reflects on his life in London after the Civil War, feeling trapped in the routine of English society and uncertain about his future career.
What happens
Henry Adams reflects on his life in London after the Civil War, feeling trapped in the routine of English society and uncertain about his future career. He considers the press as his only viable path, while observing the political changes in England and his father's growing stature. A six-month journey to Italy provides distraction but no real education, and he returns to find himself adrift, struggling to find purpose and identity.
Themes in this chapter
Education and Self-Formation
Adams grapples with the failure of his previous education and seeks a new path, considering the press as a last resort for the 'literary survivor of a wrecked education.'
Social Class and Identity
Adams feels the pull of English society and its habits, worrying that he is catching an 'English tone of mind' while remaining hostile to it, highlighting the tension between American and European identities.
The Failure of Leadership
The political turmoil in both America (Johnson vs. Senate) and England (fall of Palmerston and Russell) leaves Adams feeling adrift, with no clear leadership to guide his career.
Characters to notice
- Henry Adams
Feels lost and without a clear career path; considers the press as his only option; struggles with the influence of English society on his mind.
- Charles Francis Adams
Becomes a historical monument in London; his political opponents disappear; his personal weight increases.
- John Hay
Passes through London to bury himself in second-rate Legations before returning to America.
- Whitelaw Reid
Mentioned as someone John Hay later joins on the Tribune.
- Lord Palmerston
Dies in October 1865, marking a shift in English politics.
- Lord John Russell
Tottered on six months longer after Palmerston's death, then vanished from power.
- Abraham Lincoln
Assassinated while Adams's family was in Rome; his reelection had earlier solidified the Minister's position.
- Andrew Johnson
At loggerheads with the Senate, causing delays in the Minister's return home.
Key passages
“Had Henry Adams shared a single taste with the young Englishmen of his time, he would have been lost; but the custom of pounding up and down Rotten Row every day, on a hack, was not a taste, and yet was all the sport he shared.”
Adams felt that if he had genuinely enjoyed the same pastimes as young Englishmen, he would have been completely absorbed into their world; however, the daily routine of riding in Rotten Row was merely a habit, not a true pleasure, and it was the only activity he participated in.
Highlights Adams's alienation from English society despite his immersion in it.
“The press was an inferior pulpit; an anonymous schoolmaster; a cheap boarding-school but it was still the nearest approach to a career for the literary survivor of a wrecked education.”
Adams saw journalism as a degraded form of teaching or preaching, but for someone like him whose formal education had failed, it was the most accessible profession.
Reflects Adams's ambivalence toward the press as a career choice.
“His identity, if one could call a bundle of disconnected memories an identity, seemed to remain; but his life was once more broken into separate pieces; he was a spider and had to spin a new web in some new place with a new attachment.”
Adams felt that his sense of self was merely a collection of fragmented memories, and after returning from Italy, his life was shattered again, forcing him to rebuild from scratch like a spider weaving a new web.
Illustrates Adams's profound sense of dislocation and the need to reconstruct his life.
