What does it mean for an author to re-do a precursor's work? As Harold Bloom's famous influence theory explains, this question may be answered by considering the author's will to create original works while (inevitably) in a state of ambivalent feelings toward precursors—split between respect and the desire to overcome. Nevertheless, this still leaves considerable room for authors to come up with their own individual answer. Henry James considered Nathaniel Hawthorne the most recent pioneer in his vicinity, while his earlier precursors include ancient Greek and Roman sculptors and poets. Geoffrey Moore views Roderick Hudson, James’ “first attempt at a novel,” as his “re-doing of The Marble Faun,”1 which, like Roderick Hudson, is set in a Rome filled with ancient sculptures, with artists and their models as the protagonists. Similarly, Sanford E. Marovitz considers Roderick Hudson as “a companion piece to The Marble Faun”2...
