Jumble of characters in Henry James' Sacred Fount (4)
I believe the answer is:
mess
'jumble' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'characters in henry james' sacred fount' is the wordplay.
'characters in' indicates the central letters.
'henry james'' becomes 'james' ('James' can be a synonym of 'henry james').
'sacred fount' becomes 'ess' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle letter of 'james' is 'm'.
'm'+'ess'='MESS'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mess that I've seen before include "Military canteen" , "Where men might eat" , "Meal" , "Military dining area" , "sloppy > food" .)