How does one account for the contradictions characterizing Staverton's role in "The Jolly Corner"? One might recall that the tropes situating her as the angel of the jolly corner are Brydon's, or at least come from a narrative voice representing Brydon's perspective, and that another view of Staverton emerges once we focus on her words and actions expressed in relatively uncontaminated narrative commentary. I have argued that the array of differences in James's text can be approached from the perspective of gender analysis and sexual politics. However, we might also note that Brydon's perspective corresponds not only to a male definition of a woman's role but to an earlier historical era as well, dating roughly from the time of his leaving the United States for Europe, even before that. Staverton's "disorderly conduct" happens to corre spond more closely with an image of women's power and priorities roughly...