Chapter 13 Summary

Macha leaves when Fillmore's studio becomes too cold for her. Henry and Fillmore sit near the one coal stove in the apartment and talk about America, Whitman and Goethe. Henry goes for a walk and thinks about all the people around him who have shut themselves up from the cold. He thinks about the discrepancy between ideas and living, how he desires to get off the gold standard of literature, how the world has come to a place where true art must be expressed boldly without the drag of conventional connections like morality or membership, and that he loves everything that flows.

Chapter 13 Analysis

Henry's enthusiasm for his story rekindles near the fire, as he and Fillmore talk about literature. Henry wants to break the gold standard of literature. The second half of this section contains his work to this end, culminating in...