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In this essay I study the intertextual connections between The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst and The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James. Using the critic Harold Bloom’s theories about misreading, as well as other theories on intertextuality by Roland Barthes, I examine how the intertextual connections between Hollinghurst’s protagonist Nick Guest and James’s main character Fleda Vetch present themselves. I discuss allusion, especially focusing on how the disappointments of the principal characters in both works mirror one another. Furthermore, using Bloom’s framework, I examine how Henry James is a precursor to Hollinghurst, and how Hollinghurst becomes an ephebe to James. I follow this idea, and I support it by exploring the many references to James’s writing in the Line of Beauty. Ultimately, I argue that Hollinghurst’s misreading of James leads to his supplanting him through the process named kenosis by Bloom.