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Washington Square: Introduction by Arthur Phillips (Everyman's Library Classics Series) Hardcover – February 5, 2013
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Set in the genteel New York of James’s early childhood, it is a tale of cruelty laced with comedy. Dr. Austin Sloper is a wealthy and domineering father who is disappointed in the unremarkable daughter he has produced; he dismisses her as both plain and simpleminded. The gentle and dutiful Catherine Sloper has always been in awe of her father, but when she falls in love with Morris Townsend, a penniless charmer whom Dr. Sloper accuses of being a fortune hunter, she dares to defy him and a battle of wills ensues that will leave her forever changed. Readers have long admired the way that the innocent Catherine, misled by her meddling aunt and mistreated by both her father and her lover, grows in strength and wisdom over the course of her ordeal.
- Print length232 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEveryman's Library
- Publication dateFebruary 5, 2013
- Dimensions5.26 x 0.76 x 8.3 inches
- ISBN-100307961427
- ISBN-13978-0307961426
- Lexile measure1030L
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About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
During a portion of the first half of the present century, and more particularly during the latter part of it, there flourished and practiced in the city of New York a physician who enjoyed perhaps an exceptional share of the consideration which, in the United States, has always been bestowed upon distinguished members of the medical profession. This profession in America has constantly been held in honor, and more successfully than elsewhere has put forward a claim to the epithet of “liberal.” In a country in which, to play a social part, you must either earn your income or make believe that you earn it, the healing art has appeared in a high degree to combine two recognized sources of credit. It belongs to the realm of the practical, which in the United States is a great recommendation; and it is touched by the light of science—a merit appreciated in a community in which the love of knowledge has not always been accompanied by leisure and opportunity.
It was an element in Doctor Sloper’s reputation that his learning and his skill were very evenly balanced; he was what you might call a scholarly doctor, and yet there was nothing abstract in his remedies—he always ordered you to take something. Though he was felt to be extremely thorough, he was not uncomfortably theoretic; and if he sometimes explained matters rather more minutely than might seem of use to the patient, he never went so far (like some practitioners one had heard of) as to trust to the explanation alone, but always left behind him an inscrutable prescription. There were some doctors that left the prescription without any explanation at all; and he did not belong to that class either, which was after all the most vulgar. It will be seen that I am describing a clever man; and this is really the reason why Doctor Sloper had become a local celebrity.
At the time at which we are chiefly concerned with him he was some fifty years of age, and his popularity was at its height. He was very witty, and he passed in the best society of New York for a man of the world—which, indeed, he was, in a very succinct degree. I hasten to add, to anticipate possible misconception, that he was not the least of a charlatan. He was a thoroughly honest man—honest in a degree of which he had perhaps lacked the opportunity to give the complete measure; and, putting aside the great good nature of the circle in which he practiced, which was rather fond of boasting that it possessed the “brightest” doctor in the country, he daily justified his claim to the talents attributed to him by the popular voice. He was an observer, even a philosopher, and to be bright was so natural to him, and (as the popular voice said) came so easily, that he never aimed at mere eVect, and had none of the little tricks and pretensions of second-rate reputations. It must be confessed that fortune had favored him, and that he had found the path to prosperity very soft to his tread. He had married, at the age of twenty-seven, for love, a very charming girl, Miss Catherine Harrington, of New York, who, in addition to her charms, had brought him a solid dowry. Mrs. Sloper was amiable, graceful, accomplished, elegant, and in 1820 she had been one of the pretty girls of the small but promising capital which clustered about the Battery and overlooked the Bay, and of which the uppermost boundary was indicated by the grassy waysides of Canal Street. Even at the age of twenty-seven Austin Sloper had made his mark to mitigate the anomaly of his having been chosen among a dozen suitors by a young woman of high fashion, who had ten thousand dollars of income and the most charming eyes in the island of Manhattan. These eyes, and some of their accompaniments, were for about five years a source of extreme satisfaction to the young physician, who was both a devoted and a very happy husband.
The fact of his having married a rich woman made no diVerence in the line he had traced for himself, and he cultivated his profession with as definite a purpose as if he still had no other resources than his fraction of the modest patrimony which, on his father’s death, he had shared with his brothers and sisters. This purpose had not been preponderantly to make money—it had been rather to learn something and to do something. To learn something interesting, and to do something useful—this was, roughly speaking, the program he had sketched, and of which the accident of his wife having an income appeared to him in no degree to modify the validity. He was fond of his practice, and of exercising a skill of which he was agreeably conscious, and it was so patent a truth that if he were not a doctor there was nothing else he could be, that a doctor he persisted in being, in the best possible conditions. Of course his easy domestic situation saved him a good deal of drudgery, and his wife’s aYliation to the “best people” brought him a good many of those patients whose symptoms are, if not more interesting in themselves than those of the lower orders, at least more consistently displayed. He desired experience, and in the course of twenty years he got a great deal. It must be added that it came to him in some forms which, whatever might have been their intrinsic value, made it the reverse of welcome. His first child, a little boy of extraordinary promise, as the doctor, who was not addicted to easy enthusiasm, firmly believed, died at three years of age, in spite of everything that the mother’s tenderness and the father’s science could invent to save him. Two years later Mrs. Sloper gave birth to a second infant—an infant of a sex which rendered the poor child, to the doctor’s sense, an inadequate substitute for his lamented firstborn, of which he had promised himself to make an admirable man. The little girl was a disappointment; but this was not the worst. A week after her birth the young mother, who, as the phrase is, had been doing well, suddenly betrayed alarming symptoms, and before another week had elapsed Austin Sloper was a widower.
For a man whose trade was to keep people alive he had certainly done poorly in his own family; and a bright doctor who within three years loses his wife and his little boy should perhaps be prepared to see either his skill or his aVection impugned. Our friend, however, escaped criticism; that is, he escaped all criticism but his own, which was much the most competent and most formidable. He walked under the weight of this very private censure for the rest of his days, and bore forever the scars of a castigation to which the strongest hand he knew had treated him on the night that followed his wife’s death. The world, which, as I have said, appreciated him, pitied him too much to be ironical; his misfortune made him more interesting, and even helped him to be the fashion. It was observed that even medical families cannot escape the more insidious forms of disease, and that, after all, Doctor Sloper had lost other patients besides the two I have mentioned; which constituted an honorable precedent. His little girl remained to him; and though she was not what he had desired, he proposed to himself to make the best of her. He had on hand a stock of unexpended authority, by which the child, in its early years, profited largely. She had been named, as a matter of course, after her poor mother, and even in her most diminutive babyhood the doctor never called her anything but Catherine. She grew up a very robust and healthy child, and her father, as he looked at her, often said to himself that, such as she was, he at least need have no fear of losing her. I say “such as she was,” because, to tell the truth— But this is a truth of which I will defer the telling.
Chapter 2
When the child was about ten years old, he invited his sister, Mrs. Penniman, to come and stay with him. The Miss Slopers had been but two in number, and both of them had married early in life. The younger, Mrs. Almond by name, was the wife of a prosperous merchant and the mother of a blooming family. She bloomed herself, indeed, and was a comely, comfortable, reasonable woman, and a favorite with her clever brother, who, in the matter of women, even when they were nearly related to him, was a man of distinct preferences. He preferred Mrs. Almond to his sister Lavinia, who had married a poor clergyman, of a sickly constitution and a flowery style of eloquence, and then, at the age of thirty-three, had been left a widow—without children, without fortune—with nothing but the memory of Mr. Penniman’s flowers of speech, a certain vague aroma of which hovered about her own conversation. Nevertheless, he had oVered her a home under his own roof, which Lavinia accepted with the alacrity of a woman who had spent the ten years of her married life in the town of Poughkeepsie. The doctor had not proposed to Mrs. Penniman to come and live with him indefinitely; he had suggested that she should make an asylum of his house while she looked about for unfurnished lodgings. It is uncertain whether Mrs. Penniman ever instituted a search for unfurnished lodgings, but it is beyond dispute that she never found them. She settled herself with her brother and never went away, and, when Catherine was twenty years old, her Aunt Lavinia was still one of the most striking features of her immediate entourage. Mrs. Penniman’s own account of the matter was that she had remained to take charge of her niece’s education. She had given this account, at least, to everyone but the doctor, who never asked for explanations which he could entertain himself any day with inventing. Mrs. Penniman, moreover, though she had a good deal of a certain sort of artificial assurance, shrunk, for indefinable reasons, from presenting herself to her brother as a fountain of instruction. She had not a high sense of humor, but she had enough to prevent her from making this mistake; and her brother, on his side, had enough to excuse her, in her situation, for laying him under contribution during a considerable part of a lifetime. He therefore assented tacitly to the proposition which Mrs. Penniman had tacitly laid down, that it was of importance that the poor motherless girl should have a brilliant woman near her. His assent could only be tacit, for he had never been dazzled by his sister’s intellectual luster. Save when he fell in love with Catherine Harrington, he had never been dazzled, indeed, by any feminine characteristics whatever; and though he was to a certain extent what is called a ladies’ doctor, his private opinion of the more complicated sex was not exalted. He regarded its complications as more curious than edifying, and he had an idea of the beauty of reason, which was, on the whole, meagerly gratified by what he observed in his female patients. His wife had been a reasonable woman, but she was a bright exception; among several things that he was sure of, this was perhaps the principal. Such a conviction, of course, did little either to mitigate or to abbreviate his widowhood; and it set a limit to his recognition, at the best, of Catherine’s possibilities and of Mrs. Penniman’s ministrations. He nevertheless, at the end of six months, accepted his sister’s permanent presence as an accomplished fact, and as Catherine grew older, perceived that there were in eVect good reasons why she should have a companion of her own imperfect sex. He was extremely polite to Lavinia, scrupulously, formally polite; and she had never seen him in anger but once in her life, when he lost his temper in a theological discussion with her late husband. With her he never discussed theology, nor, indeed, discussed anything; he contented himself with making known, very distinctly, in the form of a lucid ultimatum, his wishes with regard to Catherine.
Once, when the girl was about twelve years old, he had said to her:
“Try and make a clever woman of her, Lavinia; I should like her to be a clever woman.”
Mrs. Penniman, at this, looked thoughtful a moment. “My dear Austin,” she then inquired, “do you think it is better to be clever than to be good?”
“Good for what?” asked the doctor. “You are good for nothing unless you are clever.”
From this assertion Mrs. Penniman saw no reason to dissent; she possibly reflected that her own great use in the world was owing to her aptitude for many things.
“Of course I wish Catherine to be good,” the doctor said next day, “but she won’t be any the less virtuous for not being a fool. I am not afraid of her being wicked; she will never have the salt of malice in her character. She is ‘as good as good bread,’ as the French say; but six years hence I don’t want to have to compare her to good bread and butter.”
“Are you afraid she will be insipid? My dear brother, it is I who supply the butter; so you needn’t fear!” said Mrs. Penniman, who had taken in hand the child’s “accomplishments,” overlooking her at the piano, where Catherine displayed a certain talent, and going with her to the dancing class, where it must be confessed that she made but a modest figure.
Mrs. Penniman was a tall, thin, fair, rather faded woman, with a perfectly amiable disposition, a high standard of gentility, a taste for light literature, and a certain foolish indirectness and obliquity of character. She was romantic; she was sentimental; she had a passion for little secrets and mysteries—a very innocent passion, for her secrets had hitherto always been as unpractical as addled eggs. She was not absolutely veracious; but this defect was of no great consequence, for she had never had anything to conceal. She would have liked to have a lover, and to correspond with him under an assumed name, in letters left at a shop. I am bound to say that her imagination never carried the intimacy further than this. Mrs. Penniman had never had a lover, but her brother, who was very shrewd, understood her turn of mind. “When Catherine is about seventeen,” he said to himself, “Lavinia will try and persuade her that some young man with a moustache is in love with her. It will be quite untrue; no young man, with a moustache or without, will ever be in love with Catherine. But Lavinia will take it up, and talk to her about it; perhaps, even, if her taste for clandestine operations doesn’t prevail with her, she will talk to me about it. Catherine won’t see it, and won’t believe it, fortunately for her peace of mind; poor Catherine isn’t romantic.”
She was a healthy, well-grown child, without a trace of her mother’s beauty. She was not ugly; she had simply a plain, dull, gentle countenance. The most that had ever been said for her was that she had a “nice” face; and, though she was an heiress, no one had ever thought of regarding her as a belle. Her father’s opinion of her moral purity was abundantly justified; she was excellently, imperturbably good; aVectionate, docile, obedient, and much addicted to speaking the truth. In her younger years she was a good deal of a romp, and, though it is an awkward confession to make about one’s heroine, I must add that she was something of a glutton. She never, that I know of, stole raisins out of the pantry; but she devoted her pocket money to the purchase of cream cakes. As regards this, however, a critical attitude would be inconsistent with a candid reference to the early annals of any biographer. Catherine was decidedly not clever; she was not quick with her book, nor indeed, with anything else.
Product details
- Publisher : Everyman's Library; Reprint edition (February 5, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 232 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0307961427
- ISBN-13 : 978-0307961426
- Lexile measure : 1030L
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.26 x 0.76 x 8.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,379,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,608 in Classic American Literature
- #31,388 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #61,299 in Literary Fiction (Books)
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About the author
Henry James (1843-1916), the son of the religious philosopher Henry James Sr. and brother of the psychologist and philosopher William James, published many important novels including Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, and The Ambassadors.
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Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate the compelling characters and emotional depth. The author is described as perceptive and intelligent, offering interesting insights into human nature. Many find the writing style easy to read and fluent, while others mention it takes a bit of getting used to the style. Opinions differ on the story quality - some find it well-crafted and enjoyable, while others feel it's poorly written and wordy.
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Customers find the book readable and interesting. They describe the plot as thought-provoking and a classic piece of literature from Henry James. The prose presents the story clearly.
"...(which is perfectly acceptable, with easily readable print and wide-enough margins... and very..." Read more
"...Like Austen, James proves that it is possible to tell a good story without resorting to lurid subject matter, without sensationalism...." Read more
"...Portrait of a Lady, James writes lovely prose and presents the story to us with some clarity, but neither the characters nor the story itself are..." Read more
"...Without a doubt, the movie is more exciting and riveting than the book. I would say read the book for comparison, but DEFINITELY see the movie!..." Read more
Customers enjoy the engaging characters and the author's witty writing style. They find the characters well-drawn and the book a perfect exercise in character development. However, some readers felt the characters were too brittle and didn't care much about them. The heroine is described as strong and honest, but not drawn very well.
"...But, of course, the book more deeply fleshes-out its characters and their feelings/motivations/strengths/weaknesses/challenges far more richly than..." Read more
"...It is not lengthy, it reads fluently, and it is a pitch-perfect exercise in character, setting, narration, plot and theme development...." Read more
"...The interesting thing about this book is the ambiguity around the characters...." Read more
"...But she remains honest and true to herself...." Read more
Customers find the book engaging with its exploration of emotions and tragic life situations. They find the author objective and dispassionate, depicting inner thoughts and psychological motivations with sympathy. The discussion of the human condition is thorough and enlightening. The book explores themes like sarcasm, innocence, love, and imaginative metaphors.
"Lloyd James has a good general tone for Henry James, objective and dispassionate with occasional small flurries of excitement and drama...." Read more
"...The action is not outward, but psychological and emotional. Could the story have been told in half the number of pages, or less? Probably...." Read more
"This was my first Henry James novel and I enjoyed it. This book was kind of sad. I felt bad for Catherine...." Read more
"...Wow, is he direct in exploring emotions and tragic life situations. Well done, Mr. James...." Read more
Customers find the book insightful and engaging. They appreciate the author's perceptive writing style and his ability to observe human nature. The book offers subtle insights into the interior lives of characters, as well as social commentary and diverse perspectives.
"...more HJ books from Amazon (arriving soon). James is such a perceptive and intelligent writer - and he keeps the action moving...." Read more
"...The sentences are far shorter, with much more obvious point, and the narrator reads most of them with a clarity and assuredness that eludes him..." Read more
"...a critical introduction by James scholar Martha Banta that is erudite and very accessible...." Read more
"...has the quality of a complex equation - revealing a whole range of diverse perspectives and angles from which to view the central story...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's short length. They find it tightly written with concise sentences and a clear narrative focus. The book is described as a classic novel that was made into the movie The Heiress.
"...The sentences are far shorter, with much more obvious point, and the narrator reads most of them with a clarity and assuredness that eludes him..." Read more
"...It is not lengthy, it reads fluently, and it is a pitch-perfect exercise in character, setting, narration, plot and theme development...." Read more
"...It's short, tightly written, and character-driven without spinning off into any needless side plots...." Read more
"The novel is one of his briefest and most accessible...." Read more
Customers have different views on the writing quality. Some praise the fluent and beautiful prose that captures the era well. Others find the writing style cumbersome, wordy, and old-fashioned.
"...(which is perfectly acceptable, with easily readable print and wide-enough margins... and very lightweight)..." Read more
"...The writing is sublime throughout - sustained better, I think, than in any other novel by James - and so despite the flaws of this reading I'm glad..." Read more
"...paragraphs as being "densely textured", I found it somewhat cumbersome reading...." Read more
"...It is a love story of sorts, related in the beautiful, ornate prose that characterizes James' most satisfactory works...." Read more
Customers have different views on the story. Some find it well-crafted and interesting, with a lively style that makes a typical parlor room romance/drama something more interesting. Others feel the storyline is drawn out and vague, plodding onward to a dismal conclusion.
"...To paraphrase and often quoted phrase, this is novel that literally goes nowhere...." Read more
"...tell a good story without resorting to lurid subject matter, without sensationalism. The action is not outward, but psychological and emotional...." Read more
"...However, the Henry James novel, "Washington Square", was tiring, difficult reading because of his particular writing style...." Read more
"...This is the unhappy story of a rich, controlling, widowed father and his only child, a daughter whom the dad considers unattractive, unintelligent..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's style. Some find it beautiful and true to life, with a touching story and wonderful local color. Others mention that the layout is odd, the style is long-winded and dense, and the doctor is the least well-drawn character.
"...It is a love story of sorts, related in the beautiful, ornate prose that characterizes James' most satisfactory works...." Read more
"...His style is long-winded and dense, typical of of his time." Read more
"...a young man named Morris Townsend who is described as being incredibly handsome and charming...." Read more
"Although this layout is a little odd, it's closer to the original layout than I'd thought...." Read more
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This copy of WASHINGTON SQUARE is garbage!
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2021I've just finished reading WASHINGTON SQUARE (1880) by Henry James (1843-1916) in the Signet Classics mass market paperback edition (which is perfectly acceptable, with easily readable print and wide-enough margins... and very lightweight).
This was my first time reading anything by Henry James, and I enjoyed it so much that I've ordered two more HJ books from Amazon (arriving soon).
James is such a perceptive and intelligent writer - and he keeps the action moving. And WASHINGTON SQUARE was, from what I can gather, the only novel that James placed in the past.
As you may or may not know, the 1949 film The Heiresss (out of which came an Oscar win for Olivia de Havilland) was based on this short novel (209 pages in this edition). And the film version follows the book quite closely, both in dramatic action and dialog. But, of course, the book more deeply fleshes-out its characters and their feelings/motivations/strengths/weaknesses/challenges far more richly than a film ever could.
The story centers around the well-to-do but plain, insecure and painfully shy young lady Catherine Sloper, her prideful, emotionally aloof, judgmental, and fastidious physician father, two aunts (the doctor's sisters), and a "beautiful" young man (Morris Townsend) who sweeps "poor Catherine" off her feet one night at a party.
Morris immediately begins passionately courting Catherine and soon extracts a marriage promise from her (with the frequent and surreptitious aid of well-intentioned but meddlesome aunt Penniman) - much to her father's abject horror and her aunt Penniman's ecstatic delight. (The widowed aunt Penniman lives with Dr Sloper and Catherine in their large New York City home in Washington Square, and accounts for much of the humor and dramatic momentum in the story.)
But are Morris's matrimonial intentions based on pure love, or is he really just a slick gold-digger after Catherine's current large bequeathed income - and the prospect of an even larger future inheritance when her father dies?
The lonesome and emotionally vulnerable Catherine is rapturously convinced by Morris's burning love-ardor - but we are left intriguingly undecided throughout most of the novel concerning his true motives.
And what must ultimately become of beautiful, exuberant Morris and his wealthy-but-homely Catherine?
One of the "strange pleasures" of this book is watching Catherine's personality develop and mature over a span of some years, into her middle-age. This larger time expanse is a major difference from the film, which keeps the action more contained to the general present.
But does Catherine mature into a better, finer person; or does she become hard-hearted and even more sternly introverted? Or perhaps a bit of both? (The romantic human heart is so very fragile, complex, brave and sensitive a thing.)
At the end we are forced to ask: What do forgiveness and forgetting mean?....
One possible slight drawback of reading this book after seeing the movie is that we inevitably "see" the various FILM ACTORS (de Havilland, Hopkins, Richardson, Clift, etc.) as the BOOK'S CHARACTERS. But the casting of the film is so excellent, this turns out not to be such a problem. But, if you can, read the book FIRST.
This edition contains a very interesting Introduction by Mona Simpson, and provides some helpful biographical info on Henry James and a discussion of where James got the idea for WASHINGTON SQUARE.
I highly recommend WASHINGTON SQUARE and feel certain you'll enjoy it.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2010Lloyd James has a good general tone for Henry James, objective and dispassionate with occasional small flurries of excitement and drama.
It's in the detail that he becomes stuck: he has little feel for the forensic delicacy and purpose of Henry James' authorial voice. In the opening two chapters - which are in the author's point of view - he is all at sea, with irrelevant pauses, consistent failure to bring out the point of the language (and Henry James' language is always charged with point), and a complete unawareness that it's actually meant to be (at least partially) funny. Henry James' humour may be subtle to the point of stuffiness but it's still humour and Lloyd James just doesn't get it. He is unfailingly serious all throughout this reading. You need to listen very carefully to get what the author is getting at: there are few, if any, writers who equal Henry James for scalpel-like precision of language and this reading is too desultory and unfocused to bring out this quality.
Happily, much of the novel is made up of dialogue and Lloyd James is much more at home here. The sentences are far shorter, with much more obvious point, and the narrator reads most of them with a clarity and assuredness that eludes him elsewhere. And this dialogue is so crisp, pointed, and entertaining that it alone brings a recommendation. The writing is sublime throughout - sustained better, I think, than in any other novel by James - and so despite the flaws of this reading I'm glad I bought this audiobook.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2017I once worked as a tutor, at my university's tutoring center, and in one of the numerous moments of leisure I enjoyed (the majority of the student population seemed to be unaware of the center's existence, which makes sense when one considers that it was located in the library basement), I overheard a conversation between two students, a guy and a girl, who had been taking an English class titled Special Topics: Conrad and James. "Why doesn't he get to the point?" the girl was complaining. I began to listen to the conversation in medias res, but I did not need to hear more to know that she was not talking about Conrad. I think they were discussing _The Portrait of a Lady_, which I've yet to read. As most enthusiasts of English literature know, James is famous for an exhaustive, convoluted style that is not everyone's cup of tea. In the middle of his career, James' style offers the lover of great prose a nearly physical pleasure; towards the end of the author's life, it degenerated almost into self-parody. At least that is the consensus. A friend of mine said, referring to _The Golden Bowl_ (1904), that it is often difficult to figure out what is going on, assuming that something is going on at all.
Published in serial form two years after the original _Daisy Miller_, _Washington Square_ (1880) is a novella that belongs to the decade in which Henry James published such highly regarded works as _The Portrait of a Lady_, _The Bostonians_, _The Author of Beltraffio_, _The Aspern Papers_, and _The Lesson of the Master_. It is a love story of sorts, related in the beautiful, ornate prose that characterizes James' most satisfactory works.
The reader follows the fate of Catherine Sloper, who falls in love with Morris Townsend. The conflict: Catherine is a good girl who will inherit a reasonable sum from her mother and an even larger one from her still-living father, while Morris lives off his sister and has been known to squander what little money he had. Behind the two central figures stand Catherine's father, Dr. Sloper, who is convinced that Morris is only after the money, and his sister, Catherine's Aunt Lavinia Penniman, who has not only a taste but a hunger for romance. Catherine is caught between obedience to her father and a sincere attraction to Morris. The reader wonders whether Dr. Sloper is correct, whether Morris really is mercenary.
As is known, critics have bestowed upon Henry James the enviable title of Heir of Jane Austen, and _Washington Square_ offers much justification. The style is precise and exquisite, and the novella focuses on the struggle between emotion and convention. Like Austen, James proves that it is possible to tell a good story without resorting to lurid subject matter, without sensationalism. The action is not outward, but psychological and emotional. Could the story have been told in half the number of pages, or less? Probably. But then it wouldn't have been a Henry James story, and the reader would have been deprived of the elegant style that is almost a character in itself in this author's works.
Although it is generally catalogued as a novel, the rubric of novella fits _Washington Square_ more comfortably. I wrote my dissertation on this neglected and elusive genre, but I won't bore you with the details. In a nutshell, if the short story is governed by the literary device of revelation and the concept of development characterizes the novel proper, the novella focuses on a situation that is presented and reexamined. This is exactly what happens in _Washington Square_, and that's all one can say without giving away too much.
I have yet to read James' novels. I am curious to see how a master of the short story and especially of the novella spins a longer yarn. If I had to compare _Washington Square_ to any of the works I've read by James, my choice would be _The Beast in the Jungle_ (1903), that story about the fear of one's future. I also thought, as I was reading, of other stories that play with the theme of possible or actual ulterior motives: _The Aspern Papers_ and _The Lesson of the Master_. I'll simply say that _Washington Square_ is a bit less ambiguous than other Henry James stories.
I recommend _Washington Square_ to both James enthusiasts and neophytes. The former will be delighted; the latter will be able to establish whether they want to give the author a second chance or not. Personally, I would describe this novella as one of the most gratifying examples of the immensely gratifying art of Henry James.
My next Henry James will be _In the Cage_.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
Top reviews from other countries
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Al DCReviewed in Italy on August 20, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Ok
Libro conforme alla descrizione. Tutto bene.
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LMReviewed in Germany on April 6, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Eben Henry James
Der verwitwete Arzt Dr. Sloper, angesehen und wohlhabend, wohnt mit seiner Tochter und seiner verwitweten Schwester in einem repräsentativen Haus am Washington Square in New York. Seine Frau, die er sehr geliebt hat, ist kurz nach Geburt der Tochter verstorben. Seine Schwester, Mrs. Penniman, hat er nach dem Tod ihres Mannes bei sich aufgenommen. Vorübergehend - doch letzten Endes hat sie sich bei ihm "eingenistet". Dr. Sloper ist Vernunftmensch durch und durch. Durch seine Tätigkeit hat er sich große Menschenkenntnis erworben. Mit scharfem Verstand analysiert und durchschaut er seine Mitmenschen. Er liebt seine Tochter Catherine. Sie ist aber auch eine herbe Enttäuschung für ihn, denn sie ist schüchtern, sehr ruhig, nicht intelligent, nicht attraktiv. Sie wiederum vergöttert ihren Vater. Von seiner Schwester hält Dr. Sloper noch weniger: Sie hat keinen festen Standpunkt, schwankt in ihren Meinungen hin und her und lässt sich von ihrer lebhaften Phantasie und ihren emotionalen Bedürfnissen beherrschen. Penetrant mischt sie sich in die Angelegenheiten anderer ein und verursacht immer wieder Chaos. Mit einer anderen Schwester, Mrs. Almond, tauscht sich Dr. Sloper öfter aus. Sie schätzt er und sie teilt seine Meinung über Mrs. Penniman.
Als Catherine den Mitgiftjäger Morris Townsend kennen lernt, verliebt sie sich in ihn. Auch Mrs. Penniman ist begeistert von ihm. Nur Dr. Sloper hat ihn schnell durchschaut: Der junge Mann hat nichts gelernt, geht keiner Tätigkeit nach, hat kein Geld und wohnt bei seiner Schwester, von der er sich aushalten lässt. Catherine ist für ihn ein naives, sehr vermögendes Opfer. Dr. Sloper macht seiner Tochter klar, dass er gegen eine Verbindung zwischen ihr und Morris ist. Für Mrs. Penniman ist jedoch die Förderung der Beziehung eine emotional belebende Aufgabe. Sie trifft sich immer wieder mit Morris, um ihn vom Stand der Dinge zu unterrichten und um ihre verstiegenen, romantischen Ideen und Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen. Morris verbirgt seine zunehmende Verärgerung ("alte verrückte Schachtel"), denn er möchte ja seine Interessen nicht gefährden. Schließlich unternimmt Dr. Sloper mit Catherine eine Kulturreise nach Europa und hofft, dass sie danach von ihren Gefühlen für Morris geheilt ist. Dies ist nicht der Fall. Er gibt ein sarkastisches Urteil über sie ab, das sie sehr verletzt.
Während der Reise hat sich seine Schwester verstärkt um Morris gekümmert: Der geht im Haus am Washington Square ein und aus, macht es sich im Arbeitszimmer von Dr. Sloper bequem und genießt den Wein des Doktors. Was während seiner Abwesenheit geschehen ist und wer dafür verantwortlich ist, entgeht Dr. Sloper natürlich nicht. Ironisch konfrontiert er seine Schwester mit seinem Wissen.
Aber Morris kommt seinem Ziel einfach nicht näher: Dr. Sloper lehnt unverändert eine Heirat ab. Bei einer Heirat würde Catherine nur das Erbe ihrer Mutter erhalten, nicht sein Vermögen. Catherine könnte das akzeptieren - nicht jedoch Morris. Er muss sich nun etwas einfallen lassen, um von einer unergiebigen Erbin, die sich an ihn klammert, loszukommen. Er schützt Geschäfte vor. Catherine dämmert es, dass dies Trennung bedeutet. Sie ist verzweifelt. Dr. Sloper ist sich sicher: "Jetzt ist es passiert - der Gauner hat sich aus dem Staub gemacht". Mit einer LIst lockt er Catherine aus der Reserve. Sie sagt ihm, dass s i e sich von Morris getrennt hat. Natürlich weiß er, wer sich von wem getrennt hat. Er ist sich auch sicher, dass Morris wieder auftauchen wird. Evtl. nach seinem Tod, um sich das Vermögen der Erbin zu sichern. Davor möchte er seine Tochter schützen.
Die Jahre vergehen. Dr. Sloper möchte, dass Catherine ihm verspricht, nach seinem Tod Morris nicht zu heiraten. Sie kann ihm das nicht versprechen. Nach seinem Tod wird sein Testament eröffnet. Der größte Teil seines Vermögens geht nicht an Catherine, "da er ihr nicht zutraut, geldgierigen Abenteurern zu widerstehen". Catherine gibt sich damit zufrieden.
Und tatsächlich: Noch einmal taucht Morris in ihrem Leben auf, natürlich unterstützt von Mrs. Penniman. Catherine erkennt, dass er ihr nichts mehr bedeutet. Sie bleibt trotz seines Drängens stark und lehnt weiteren Kontakt ab.
Ein wundervoller, durchaus humorvoller Roman. Er beschreibt das Beziehungsgeflecht von drei Personen - Catherine, Morris, Mrs. Penniman - mit allen Komplikationen. Die vierte Hauptperson, Dr. Sloper, ist mit einem unverrückbaren Standpunkt der Fels in der Brandung: Er muss seine Tochter und ihr Geld vor einem Mitgiftjäger bewahren. Er weiß, was er von seinen Mitspielern zu halten hat. Seine manchmal scharfe Ironie im Umgang mit Catherine und seiner Schwester ist nachvollziehbar: Seine Vernunftorientierung wird durch sie auf eine harte Probe gestellt! Mit leisem Vergnügen beobachtet er die Verstrickungen der drei Personen und die Entwicklung der Ereignisse. Letzten Endes behält er (zum Teil) Recht: Morris, wieder "unversorgt", versucht nach Jahren erneut sein Glück bei Catherine. Mrs. Penniman hat sich überhaupt nicht geändert. Nur bei Catherine ist eine Änderung eingetreten. Die Geschichte endet mit leiser Melancholie.
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jmcoy67Reviewed in Spain on January 12, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Aceptable
Buen libro
- kitty345Reviewed in Australia on June 13, 2021
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy these 'annotated' versions of classic literature!
This is the second time I have bought a kindle version of a classic 19th century novel- only to find that the text has been butchered to an extent that it's unreadable-complete with modern words like 'superstar' dropped in at odd places that don't make any sense and destroy the whole reading experience. It's like someone scrawling graffiti all over a a major work of art and trying to tell you it's the same thing. An appalling practice that Amazon should stop- presumably they do this so they can make money out of something that's out of copyright. I would have given this zero stars it it were possible - not for the novel itself (I like Henry James) but for this adulterated version. From now on I will only buy this kind of novel in book versions- never on Kindle!
- vpchandruReviewed in India on July 19, 2015
4.0 out of 5 stars Best of Henry James
This novel is one of the best of Henry James. Everyone should read this