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    Washington Square
    Washington Square
    Washington Square
    Ebook313 pages5 hours

    Washington Square

    By Henry James

    3.5/5

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    Henry James's most memorable novels, a story in which love is answered with betrayal and loyalty leads inexorably to despair.

    In Washington Square, originally published in 1880, Henry James reminisces about the New York he had known thirty years before as he tells the story of Catherine Sloper and her fortune-seeking suitor Morris Townsend. This perceptively drawn human drama is James' most accessible work and an enduring literary triumph.

    Washington Square Press' Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This edition of Washington Square has been prepared by Peter Conn, Andrea Mitchell Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. It includes his introduction, notes, selection of critical excerpts, and suggestions for further reading as well as a unique visual essay of period illustrations and photographs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateMar 8, 2016
    ISBN9781451686807
    Author

    Henry James

    Henry James (1843–1916) was an American writer, highly regarded as one of the key proponents of literary realism, as well as for his contributions to literary criticism. His writing centres on the clash and overlap between Europe and America, and The Portrait of a Lady is regarded as his most notable work.

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    Reviews for Washington Square

    3.5/5

    11 ratings39 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I liked this book, but I did not like any of the characters. It holds up well as a snapshot of another time, a different society. Prefer Jane Austim et al.
    • 5/5
      I have read this book several times before, and it still reveals new things to me. This is a masterful novel, full of intriguing characters and a great plot. And although it's rather sad, James says so much about human nature. It's one of his more accessible books, and a good place to start for someone interested in getting to know his work.
    • 3/5
      A physician-father (Austin Sloper) marries well and loses, first, a young son, and shortly thereafter, his wife after the birth of a daughter. He realizes early that the daughter is of average intelligence and not beautiful, whereupon he gives up the raising of the child to his live-in widowed sister, for whom he has little respect. But it's convenient and he remains unengaged with the daughter. The daughter, Catherine, grows up shy, uneasy in relationships, and very inexperienced in society. Catherine has an income from her mother, and can expect a large inheritance on her father's death. She is a target for suitors more interested in her money than in her person. Dr. Sloper has high regard for his own ability to evaluate the worth and temperment of acqaintences he meets. When Catherine meets Morris Townsend, she is smitten by the attention he gives her and rapidly develops a love for him. Dr. Sloper recognizes that Morris has a mysterious background, but he doesn't rapidly follow up on investigating the young fellow's life path until he is surprized by the rapid development of a serious relationship between the shy Catherine and the worldly Morris. Upon talking with Morris's sister, with whom Morris lives, all his fears about Morris's character are realized. But it's too late, Catherine has agreed to marry Morris, even though Morris did not ask Dr. Sloper for his daughter's hand in marriage prior to his proposal. Dr. Sloper refuses to give his approval to the marriage and, in addition, announces that Catherine will not inherit any money from him if the marriage occurs. Dr. Sloper proposes that Catherine accompany him on a tour of Europe for six months before she marries, to which Catherine and Morris agree. In some ways, the Dr. Sloper, the physician, acts like a scientist experimenting with a guinea pig in a laboratory. He is detached from a real relationship with his daughter, He just tries various experimental procedures and watches the result and adjusts according to the response.After they return from Europe, Catherine and Morris see each other. Catherine explains to Morris that there is no chance that her father will relent from his plan of disinheritance. Morris realizes that Catherine is not going to inherit her fathers estate and begins, badly, to withdraw from his committment to Catherine, and disappears from the City in a short time. Catherine is devestated, recovers, but is forever wounded by the affair. Long after the engagment is ended, Dr. Sloper still is suspicious that Morris will return. He still will not return the will to its former state of inheritance.
    • 5/5
      This was actually assigned me in high school--but amazingly, unlike what is so often the case, I didn't hold it against it. I find this a heartbreaking book--but oh so well worth reading. It's been compared to Jane Austen in its focus on family dynamics, courtship and social satire, but unlike Austen this is really an anti-romance. Catherine Sloper is not cut out of the cloth of which romantic heroines are made. A "good" girl but plain, socially awkward, and none too bright--and her clever father can't forgive her for it. The heart of this book is the battle between father and daughter over a man wooing Catherine. And the hell of it, is her father is right about Morris Townsend, but so badly misjudges and mistreats his daughter that I couldn't quite root for him to succeed. Catherine does change through the course of the book, and some might read the last paragraphs as triumphant--but I found it a Pyrrhic victory. I haven't (yet) gone on to read more of Henry James--I understand this is one of his more readable books--he's known in his later works for very ... er... complex sentences, but that's not the case here in this short novel that falls early in his output. The book was the basis for two films, The Heiress with Olivia de Haviland and Washington Square with Jenifer Jason Leigh. Both are worthy and faithful adaptations.
    • 3/5
      I decided to listen to this book after listening to The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields which is about Edith Wharton. Edith Wharton and Henry James were good friends and I became curious about this writer. Apparently this book is often compared to Jane Austen's work but I'm not a big fan of Jane Austen and it is therefor no surprise that I didn't particularly like this book.In a nutshell this is the story of a plain but rich girl (Catherine Sloper) who falls in love with a handsome but poor man (Morris Townsend). Catherine's father suspects Townsend's motives and refuses permission for them to marry. He takes Catherine on an extensive tour of Europe hoping that she will give up on Townsend or vice versa. When that doesn't work he makes it plain that Catherine will inherit none of his wealth. Townsend calls off the engagement because he doesn't want to deprive Catherine of her inheritance or so he says. It's pretty clear that Townsend was only interested in Catherine for her money and when he realized that he wouldn't get it he dumps her.Maybe this was a new storyline when it was written but it certainly isn't now. I found it hard to care about Catherine even though I felt I should. She just seemed so insipid. At any rate I was not impressed and I won't be running out to find other books by Henry James.
    • 3/5
      Rich people live in Washington Square.This story is about one rich woman and poor man.After I read this story, I felt sad.But,I wonder if Moriss actually loves Catherine.I think that rich people is not always happy.
    • 3/5
      This is the first Henry James book I have read. It's somewhat depressing and painful on the part of the heroine, and ends with an equally depressing but correct ending. The themes are wealth, matrimony, honesty and integrity.
    • 4/5
      A father and his daughter debate a young man's intentions in a story conveying messages about the admixture of pride and love. As the father of a very young daughter I've received its precaution not to invest too much in a singular vision of the future woman my daughter will grow up to be. The author does an admirable job with the daughter's character arc, very convincingly moving her through the stages. I couldn't decide which way I wanted the ending to go, and still have mixed feelings about how it wound up - as I think I'm supposed to.I was surprised by how present the narrator is in this work, which I thought was antithetical for Mr. James. A quick search confirms this novel was from his early period before he became so entrenched, also explaining the easy reading. This short work is a good place for anyone to start who wants to sample James as an author without getting too bogged down.
    • 4/5
      The great tragedy of this novel is that no one really understood Catherine, and she had so much to give and such value to offer in a relationship. Her father judged rightly of Morris and Aunt Penniman - but never saw the prize in his daughter. I felt such empathy for Catherine in the end, and sorrow that these two men in her life used her so poorly. Mr. James' prose is a joy to read - his descriptions are so interesting and so apt.
    • 3/5
      I preferred the movie by Jennifer J.L. it is amazing, and the soundtrack makes the tears in my eyes fall.
    • 3/5
      Well, a Henry James story that I actually found readable - a first after quickly giving up on Turn of the Screw and In the Cage. This was a reasonable story about a shy daughter of an overbearing father who is taken advantage of by an avaricious young man after the fortune she is due to inherit from her mother and, in the future, from her father. Felt very Jane Austen-like, but without the charm and James is a less good writer. I felt sorry for Catherine trapped between two men trying to manipulate her emotions, though there is a suggestion at the end that, years later after the father's death, her former lover may have turned over a new leaf. 3/5
    • 4/5
      After seeing The Heiress on Broadway (starring Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame!), I felt compelled to read the novel behind the play. I'm not sure how long the book has been on my shelf, but the measure is in years rather than months.

      My love of the show certainly influenced my reaction to the book, and it often felt like I was watching the play again as I read. As far as Henry James novels go, this seems to be among the most readable. He is famous for long, convoluted sentences, especially in later works, but there was very little of that here. Washington Square is relatively straight-forward and easy to follow.

      A description of Catherine:
      "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; affectionate, 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 creme cakes..." p. 12

      and on her character awakening:
      "Catherine meanwhile had made a discovery of a very different sort; it had become vivid to her that there was a great excitement in trying to be a good daughter. She had an entirely new feeling, which may be described as a state of expectant suspense about her own actions. She watched herself as she would have watched another person, and wondered what she would do. It was as if this other person who was both herself and not herself, had suddenly sprung into being, inspiring her with a natural curiosity as to the performance of untested functions." p. 104

      My rating:
      3.5/5 stars

      Bottom line:
      Overall, a very readable and enjoyable Henry James novel, but The Portrait of a Lady is still my favorite. The play is highly recommended!
    • 2/5
      This is a love story.The cool man and the very shy women are main characters. They fall in love.But,her father against it. I think this story is very typical,so Iwas not surprised the end.I could imagine the last easily.I couldn't understandher feeling.
    • 3/5
      I pitied every principal character for their having to eat the fruit of who they were; I never grew to like them. Strangely, I pitied John Ludlow the most--for his passion being given no chance.
    • 4/5
      Is it better to be clever or good is the question that lies at the heart of this short novel. The question is raised about the dull but dutiful daughter, Catherine, by her father, Dr. Austin Sloper. Dr. Sloper has had two major losses in his life with the deaths of a son and his beloved wife which may have contributed to his barely disguised disdain for his infant daughter. Catherine?s physical needs are met by her father with the help of meddlesome Aunt Lavinia, but Catherine is a very sheltered young lady with little self-esteem when the charming and handsome Morris Townsend joins the cast of characters and the struggle to dominate Catherine begins.Washington Square is a short book and one of the most accessible written by Henry James. It is worth the few hours of time it takes to eavesdrop on society in New York City before the time of the Civil War. Life was slower back then and women largely depended on men to live a fulfilled life. It is gratifying to see how Catherine, despite being thought common by her father, used her common sense and growing independence to control her own destiny.
    • 4/5
      Henry James has a talent of getting to the essence of not only typical personages, but quite surprising and unexpected characters. Page by page he slowly unfolds their true nature. His narrative runs with such fluidity and is worded so exquisitely that upon reading it you get this quiet kind of satisfaction, of gaining something very beautiful and worth knowing. That's what I felt. At first the plot might not seem anything out of the ordinary - an idle dashing young man calculating a marriage to a wealthy, yet not apparently popular young woman. But it's much more than that, as we discover...
    • 3/5
      Utterly claustrophobic. In this tiny world every scene relates to the courtship of the heroine (Catherine) by a transparently mercenary suitor, Townsend. Some things worth noting: 1) nobody at any point beats Townsend like a wild baboon. Such is justice in this world. 2) Henry James apparently found this narrative so compelling that he can speak of nothing else for a few hundred pages. I call that obsession, and more charitable people would call it... focus? 3) Seriously, I'm not asking for a vulgar diversion like a talking parrot sidekick or a sudden alien invasion. But please, two hundred and eighty pages of endless pondering... should she marry the twit? What happens if she doesn't? Maybe she should? Oh no, Muffy, she daren't! ......zzzzzzz please please Henry you don't have to sprawl like Dickens across your imaginary world, but give us just a smidge of variety!
    • 3/5
      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read a hundred so-called "classic" books for the first time, then file reports on whether or not I think they deserve the labelBook #10: Washington Square, by Henry James (1880)The story in a nutshell:Agreed by most to definitely be one of his minor works, Washington Square is in reality not much more than a novella, written between major novels in the late Victorian Age as James often did throughout his career. And there's not much of a plot either, to tell you the truth; it's primarily the story of Catherine Sloper, a pleasant but rather dim-witted and plain-looking young woman living in the ritzy old-money New York neighborhood of Washington Square, along with her father who she shares a large house with, Austin Sloper, a typical middle-aged business-focused white guy who sorta laughingly condescends to all the people around him who aren't middle-aged business-focused white guys. In fact, this is the crux of the problem between the two of them, the conflict that fuels almost the entire storyline; it seems that Catherine has met a good-looking charmer named Morris Townsend who wishes to marry her, but her father deems him a simple-minded dreamer who's most likely after her money, and Catherine herself as just too much of a blockhead to be able to make a realization like this on her own, which is why he forbids the two to wed for her own good.The father and daughter then whisk off to Europe for a year, as upper-class Americans so often did at the time; but instead of Morris heroically coming to the rescue and bringing his true love back, it turns out that her father was right all along, with Morris turning out to be a kinda skeevy loser who actually was kinda after her money, and who sorta slinks off in this weasely way once she gets back into the country and declares that her allowance will be cut off if they wed. Instead of this making her grateful to her father for seeing the light, though, Catherine just ends up pissed at both of them, eventually growing into a matronly middle-aged old maid who becomes the buddy of the younger crowd in the neighborhood, but who never experiences love for herself even once.The argument for it being a classic:The argument for Washington Square being a classic is not a strong one, truthfully, and seems to most concern what the small novel is not -- it's not one of James' ponderous epics, not one of his later experimental works, but rather a simple and entertaining little story in the spirit of Jane Austen, told in about the most straight-ahead fashion possible. This is why people become fans of James in the first place, after all; he's considered by many to be the godfather of the modern realistic novel, the kinds of no-nonsense, clearly-written stories that comprise most Pulitzer winners and other academically-revered books. Certainly there are a lot of other novels in James' ouevre that are better-written, better-known, more historically important and a much better argument for being a classic, even this book's fans would say; it's just that Washington Square is one of his most accessible novels, a great way to ease yourself into his larger and denser pieces, and thus should be included in "The Canon" as well.The argument against:As mentioned, the argument against Washington Square being a classic is clearly the stronger one, and consists mostly of what we've been talking about; that it is simply too slim and obscure to be considered a classic, certainly a good beginning for people new to James' work but definitely not something to be held up against early-career trans-Atlantic sagas as The Portrait of a Lady and The Bostonians, nor the proto-Modernist experimental stylings of such late-career novels as The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl. It may be a good introduction to James, critics argue, but that comes with a price; it is also a frothily light novel, its plot so wispy as to almost not exist, and not something that will give you a good idea of why James fans are so nuts for his work in the first place.My verdict:So I have to confess, this was the very first book of James that I've ever tackled, and I picked it deliberately because I was a little intimidated by his larger and more well-known ones; James has a certain reputation, after all, especially among academic intellectuals who enjoy thick and challenging books, and I've also heard that his larger novels can sometimes get extremely bogged down in their middles. Ah, but like everyone else, I've discovered the problem to starting with a classic author's lighter and less-important work, which is the same thing mentioned in the criticisms above; that you just really can't get a sense from work like that about why people love that author so much to begin with, of why their work got so famous and respected in the first place. Washington Square comes and goes with the reader barely noticing; just when you think the story's about to get ratcheted up and interesting, suddenly it's over, and you realize that the entire point was to provide not much more than a trifling and amusing afternoon of diversion*. It was decent enough for what it was, and I'm definitely looking forward to checking out the 1997 movie adaptation with Jennifer Jason Leigh, but I certainly can't say that I "know" James' work in any kind of significant way because of reading it, nor can I in good conscience declare Washington Square a classic.Is it a classic? No*And by the way, some final proof of just how lightweight this novel is -- James himself, when doing a retrospective of his ouevre late in life and putting together the revised 24-volume "New York Edition" of his work, actually left Washington Square out on purpose, reportedly because he couldn't even read through it again as an older man, disgusted as he was with the frivolity of the story. When the author himself is disgusted with one of his own books, it's usually not a great sign that it'll be making the canon list anytime soon.
    • 4/5
      After muttering, grumbling and hating on Henry James for upwards of 40 years (ever since I struggled and failed to read The Ambassadors for an American Lit course in college), I have finally read and enjoyed one of his novels. In truth, I enjoyed it quite a lot. This is the story of unattractive, un-brilliant, motherless Catherine Sloper, who has no prospects of marriage until she somehow attracts the attention of young Mr. Morris Townsend, of the "other" Townsends. His prospects are no better than hers, for although he is delightful to look at, and a charming dinner companion, he has no money, no career and no family connections of the better kind. Catherine's father, a prominent New York physician, will have no part of Catherine's determination to marry Mr. Townsend; she has her own income from her dead mother and Father cannot change that, but he can and emphatically will remove her from his Will and the assured thirty thousand a year she might expect after his death, unless she gives up Mr. Townsend. The exploration of human emotions, motivations, and relationships in this novel are subtle but superb. The movie, "The Heiress" with Olivia deHaviland and Montgomery Clift was based on this novel. The outcome is fundamentally the same, but rather more dramatic in the movie.Review written in September 2011
    • 5/5
      I cannot believe how much I loved Washington Square! It was great! It actually borders on fantastic! Washington Square is about Dr. Austin Sloper, a very prominent doctor, his daugther Catherine Sloper, a very unassuming girl, and Lavinia Penniman, Dr. Sloper's meddlesome sister and Catherine's aunt. Now, Dr. Sloper is a very smart but calculating and clinical man. It seems he grew colder when his first child died and then his wife during childbirth with Catherine.

      Dr. Sloper doesn't care for Catherine. He might love her but he doesn't think well of her appearance or her limited intelligence. When, at a big party, Catherine meets and is smitten with Morris Townsend, Dr. Sloper immediately thinks he's after her money since Catherine already has her 10,000 inheritance from her mother and will get 35,000 after Sloper's death and Townsend blew all of his money coasting through Europe.

      It doesn't help matters when Lavinia gets involved acting as a conduit for Catherine and Morris. Things sort of snowball from getting very intricate but simply constructed. I believe in a less gifted author than James (I'm looking at you Nicholas Sparks!) this could have been ridiculous, corny, complicated, and plain stupid.

      However, James knows how to write straightforward prose. Events were always quick and just the facts would suffice. A 12-month vacation abroad was about a chapter or so. It was fantastic. Not to say it was scanty. Quite the contrary, it was incredibly verbose. The last few chapters were great. It could have ended happily and been one big cliche instead it ended like it would have in real life.
    • 4/5
      While I did not find it exactly amazing, I did really like Washington Square. Henry James has a way with words that is all his own. One can almost tell immediately when they're reading one of his works. Washington Square actually took me to a place I had been once a couple of decades ago, and I just couldn't help but appreciate the social anthropology found within its pages. In a great many ways, one becomes involved with the lives there. More to come in the blog.
    • 4/5
      The happening is quite an ordinary one, nothing too grand, or incredible. The female protagonist, Catherine, is one of the dullest creatures I've ever encountered in literature (and real life, for that matter). The book is not riddled with melodramatic expressions, or epic gestures.
      Despite all that (or because, I've yet to decide), it is one of the more compelling books I have ever read.

      I adore Henry James' irony, that is most apparent in this book. I love his hopelessly flawed characters. I love his writing style.

      I also find it interesting that while compiling his work, Henry James excluded the book because he didn't like it. I have an affinity to the works the artists themselves despised.

      As of the time of writing this review, I've yet to read any other of Henry James' works, so I cannot draw any kind of comparison or general opinion non him as an author (other than adoring what he did with Washington Square). I have also yet to read the afterward by Michael Cunningham, will do so after I've read the book a second time.
    • 3/5
      I used to think I hated Henry James, based on my reading of The Wings of the Dove, in which I found the plot potentially riveting and yet ruined by James' prose style. Kind of like Women in Love, which I read during the same era. Then I picked up Portrait of a Lady while living in Thailand (which led to me being desperate for books in English other than the newest Dan Brown/John Grisham/you get the idea crap "novel") and rather enjoyed it. A recent read of Altar of the Dead convinced me that I ought to give good old James another try, so I picked up Washington Square, a perennial favorite in the world of SAT essay examples here in NYC. Since my students talk about it all the time, I already knew the storyline and figured it would be nice if I could discuss it with them.The story of Catherine Sloper's ill-fated romance with Morris Townsend is sad, but in that bittersweet, 'it didn't have to be this way' kind of way. There isn't any one person to blame for the sequence of events, but I did find myself wanting to reach into the book to smack some sense into almost all of them at one point or another. I did get the feeling that James was implying that he found the father to be the most to blame, which I can't entirely agree with. The action of the novel takes place almost entirely in the drawing room of Catherine's home on Washington Square, in a corporeal sense, and internally in a more accurate sense. This book is more of a character study than a novel, and looks at the ways in which one person's attitudes and actions can affect the lives of others, a point which is particularly appropriate when discussing a culture not known for its open communication. The writing itself was a lot less rambling than I remember The Wings of the Dove's writing to have been, and not as archaic as some of the other books from this era. However, I don't always notice older language, so I might not be the best judge of that. I did find this to be a very quick and easy read though, and reasonably interesting.
    • 5/5
      After learning that one of my favorite movies, "The Heiress" was based on this book by Henry James, I knew I had to read it someday. I ended up listening to it on Audible and loved it! I just love the formal language, the setting (time and place), and the story. I didn't like the characters, though, as they were either cruel, manipulative, annoying, or stupid. I don't understand why Catherine never married anyone else and why she couldn't see Morris for who he really was. And why did her father insist on being so cruel to his daughter and change his will, years after Morris left? In retrospect, the storyline was pretty well drawn out and kind of weird - dwelling on the Catherine/Morris ill-fated romance for over 20 years. But I still loved the book and the narration was spot on. Now I want to see the movie again, as well as a later version of the movie that I have not seen before.
    • 2/5
      Morris and Catherine love with each other . But Catherine's father does not like Morris .I think sometimes parents should not say " No. " for their children's love .Of course , maybe parents love their children . So they are worried about their children.But everyone has each personality .So I hope love of Morris and Catherine is congraturated by everyone .
    • 4/5
      I listened to the Librivox recording of this. The reader's mispronunciation of numerous words was distracting, but otherwise I enjoyed the story, probably one of the few by James simple enough to manage in an audio version.
    • 3/5
      Very dense slow read for me. I thought the character development was genius. But the plot just didn't warrant the density. It could be summarized in 3-5 sentences.
    • 4/5
      Catherine Sloper is a not-so-young woman who really hasn’t much to recommend her or to attract a husband. She is somewhat plain, not terribly intelligent, not accomplished in music, dance, conversation or art. However, she does have a significant income (from her mother’s estate) and expectations of inheriting far more from her father, a brilliant physician in mid-19th-century New York City. At her cousin’s engagement party she meets a handsome gentleman, who, encouraged by her widowed Aunt Lavinia Penniman, begins to pay her particular attention.

      The focus of this entire novel is money. But James manages to craft a tale that explores not only wealth, how it is used and what it means, but social class, family structure, filial obedience, parental responsibility, and strength of character. Catherine may be described by everyone as “sweet, but simple,” but she has a will of steel, and will show her father that he has grossly underestimated her.

      Honestly, I don’t know why I waited so long to read a Henry James novel. For some reason I thought he would be “difficult,” with long, complicated sentence structure and archaic language. If you have the same notion, get over it. This is a very approachable story. I was engaged and interested from the beginning. Of course, now I’ve added more Henry James to my tbr mountain … but I think that’s a good thing.
    • 4/5
       A psychologically acute construction of three interesting characters. Very short chapters with a lot of dialogue exchange, vocal as well as internal. Hardly any prose or description, the characters unfolded and grew as I turned the pages. Very nice.
    • 4/5
      This is a surprisingly ambiguous story with a deceptively simple plot. Set in New York in the early 1900s, the story tells the tale of Catherine Sloper, the rather plain, rather dull daughter of a wealthy, domineering father who becomes the target of a charming gold-digger of a suitor. Will she marry him over the objections of her father? See how simple that is? But this is Henry James, after all, so the plot extends – like the proverbial iceberg - several layers below the surface.Catherine isn’t a terribly sympathetic heroine – her dullness, her lack of intelligence, and her refusal to stick up for herself will almost certainly grate with self-actualized women of the 20th century. However, she’s much more sympathetic than the uniformly unpleasant cast of characters with whom she interacts in this tale, all of whom see her as little more than a tool to be manipulated for their own purposes. Her aunt uses her as the means by which to fulfill her own melodramatic fantasies of secret trysts and the tragedy of doomed love. Her lover sees her as the path to ready fortune and a life of indolence and ease. Even her own father demonstrates heartbreakingly few signs of genuine affection, viewing his daughter alternatively as an interesting scientific experiment (“how will she react if I apply *this* stressor?”) and as a ready affirmation of his own cleverness. The fundamental principle of sarcasm is making the wielder feel superior by belittling another, and in this tale Dr. Sloper wields sarcasm with the same brutal precision he brings to his surgeries.This is no pat morality tale, however, in which the wicked are punished and virtue is rewarded. Nor is it a thematically simplistic novel, characterized by a resolution in which the main characters change or grow in wisdom. The world isn’t as simple as that, and James does us the favor of positing that we know this as well as he does – and that, therefore, we can cope with an ending that is both morally and thematically ambiguous. The novel raises many provoking questions, some of which include: to what extent is a parent justified in preventing their children from making their own mistakes? At what point does principled defiance become merely obstinacy … or, worse, cruelty? To what extent do we (knowingly and unknowingly) justify meddling in the affairs of others to achieve our own ends? Can harm and humiliation caused by the betrayal of others be mitigated by a steadfast refusal never to betray oneself? And is this steadfast determination never to betray one’s own principles an acceptable substitute for living a life devoid of happiness? In other words, despite the relative simplicity of plot, this definitely isn’t the kind of book you take with you to the beach. However, the novel’s moral complexity makes it a worthy read and probably great fodder for book club discussions.

    Book preview

    Washington Square - Henry James

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