‘A Speculative Idea’: The Parallel Trajectories of Financial Speculation, Obstetrical Science, and Fiscal Management of Female Bodies in Henry James’s Washington Square

Abstract

This essay teases out the intimate connections between the scientific and fiscal realms in the context of American germ theory and obstetrics. By uncovering the economic and medical contexts of Henry James's Washington Square-set during the infancy of germ theory and the heyday of American obstetrics-this essay exposes a previously unexplored subtextual history of contagion in the text. Although this scientific history seems relegated to the novel's margins, understanding the changing scientific cosmologies and professional organizations in the context of the novel's setting and composition reveals that these tiny infectious particles and their vectors fundamentally shape the plot of the novel.