Product Description

Washington Square marks the culmination of James's apprentice period as a novelist. With sharply focused attention upon just four principal characters, James provides an acute analysis of middle-class manners and behaviour in the New York of the 1870s, a period of great change in the life of the city. This change is explored through the device of setting the novel's action during the 1840s, similarly a period of considerable turbulence as the United States experienced the onset of rapid commercial and industrial expansion. Through the relationships between Austin Sloper, a celebrated physician, his sister Lavinia Penniman, his daughter Catherine, and Catherine's suitor. Morris Townsend, James observes the contemporary scene as a site of competing styles and performances where authentic expression cannot be articulated or is subject to suppression.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137961 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Henry James (1843-1916) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, critic and essayist. He travelled extensively in Europe and became a British subject in 1915. He took the American experience of Europe as the theme of his first important works, his masterpiece of this period being The Portrait of a Lady. He followed this with novels using an American setting, short stories, essays, travel writing, and significant critical studies. He also turned his attention to drama and then in 1898 made his most famous venture into the uncanny with The Turn of the Screw. He returned to America in 1904. His influence in the history of the novel is unquestioned; he was a pioneer of psychological realism and master of a rich, highly complex prose style and an extremely sensitive apprehension of values of character.

Customer Reviews

A Favourite
I must admit that this is one of my all time favourite novels, the first time I ever read it I had to go back and read it all over again. Indeed people who don't normally read James seem to love this little story. This is considered to be the story that ended James' apprenticeship, and even if he had only ever written this he would still be remembered today. James later considered this book with contempt, although no one seems to be sure why. This has always been compared to Jane Austen for its elegance and insight, and when reading it it soon becomes apparent why.

The actual plot is supposedly based on a true story that James was told. Dull Catherine is domineered by her brilliant and astute father, and when she meets a young man she wishes to marry. Catherine's father however denies her her choice and threatens to disinherit her if she marries. Taking her away from her beau they do the 'Grand Tour'. As the years progress we see how her life is lived, and then when her former beau returns on the scene we are held in anticipation of whether they will eventually get married.

James shows here how to spin a story of pure brilliance and elegance, much as he did with 'The Turn of the Screw'. It seems to me absolutely amazing that he didn't like this, but then he was a bit of a snob and perhaps being likened to Austen he felt he was being beliitled, after all he was very derogatory of another brilliant writer, Thomas Hardy. There is only one thing to really say about this book, it is a must read.