A most excellent novel! Like Dickens, Trollope goes after a particular facet of English life in most of his novels and makes you understand why you shA most excellent novel! Like Dickens, Trollope goes after a particular facet of English life in most of his novels and makes you understand why you should care, or be concerned. In this instance, it is the legal profession and the right and wrong decisions that people make. There's something about every Trollope novel that I've read that just slowly but surely draws me in until I simply can't put the book down. This guy is so underrated by many, and I just can't--for the life of me--understand why. "Orley Farm" is a great novel!...more
Like Trollope's terrific novel, Doctor Thorne, there's a lot of Jane Austen in The Small House at Allington. A quiet and pleasant and pastoral novel tLike Trollope's terrific novel, Doctor Thorne, there's a lot of Jane Austen in The Small House at Allington. A quiet and pleasant and pastoral novel that slowly enfolds you in its embrace. This is the story of the rhymes and reasons and the will and passions that guide a small group of young women and men as they endeavor to find love, and it is ever so entertaining. It can be frustrating at times too, as I found myself wanting to scream at Miss Lily Dale to get her pretty head out of her own *ss and realize that a very good life was well within her grasp. Oh well, it'd have not been much of plot if she'd done that early on. In short, this is a very satisfying novel and a Trollope that I am glad that I read and unhesitatingly recommend....more
In the annals of classic fiction I have encountered some truly monstrous parents (some of the parents in Austen or Dickens certainly come to mind), buIn the annals of classic fiction I have encountered some truly monstrous parents (some of the parents in Austen or Dickens certainly come to mind), but the mother and father of little Maisie Farange must surely be the worst. They are truly beyond despicable, and if I could reach into the pages of Henry James's What Maisie Knew, I'd throttle them both! Okay, now that I've gotten that off of my chest, perhaps I can provide an objective review of this novel. What Maisie Knew was written by Henry James in 1897, while he was still living in London.
The structure of this sophisticated novel is extraordinarily clever, as the entire plot is laid out from the perspective of the little girl, Maisie (and keep the title of the novel in mind as you read too). The novel starts off with the parents being granted a divorce and the court awarding that custody of Maisie will be shared. This poor little girl has to spend six months with her father and then be packed off for six months with her mother. What is even worse is that the parents use Maisie in their on-going fight-to-the-death with one another; at the same time they take on new spouses (and then immediately begin adulterous relationships!). And while Maisie is wise beyond her years and quite perceptive to what is going on around her in the world of the grown-ups that she is surrounded by, much of what she observes has to be interpreted through the lens of the experience of her own childhood and the little bit of love and kindness bestowed upon her from a scant few of the adults--but not her own parents--around her.
Through the course of the novel Maisie does gravitate to the two characters that do seem offer her the hope and opportunity of kindness, love, and some semblance of stability, and those two characters are her governess, Mrs Wix, and her mother's second ex-husband Sir Claude. Sir Claude has his own 'bag-of-issues' to deal with, but he is really and truly genuinely concerned about Maisie and her long-term welfare. He ends being more of father-figure to the little girl, by a long-shot, than her own father did on his very best day. Ultimately, these two people, whom Maisie trusts with her heart and soul, do end up making the right decisions that give this little girl a chance for a wholesome life.
Finally, it needs to be said that there's much in this novel that can offend modern sensibilities, particularly when it comes to how children are looked after (or not), guardianship issues, or even the exercise of parental responsibilities (or not!). The reader needs to remember that there weren't governmental agencies like 'Child Protective Services' in Victorian England to provide that safety net for children in Maisie's situation. Henry James, like Charles Dickens before him, seems to have been much affected by child welfare issues, and I have to think he was trying to make a point here that parental responsibility is a duty and an obligation and that love and a nurturing stable environment are what every child needs and deserves. As painful as it was to read, I'm glad that I read What Maisie Knew, and look forward to reading it again in the future. At this point, I would give this 3.5 stars out of five.
But I still want to reach into the pages of this novel and throttle both of her parents! ...more
This review is associated with The Aspern Papers--
The Aspern Papers is a brilliant novella written by Henry James and serialized in the Atlantic in 18This review is associated with The Aspern Papers--
The Aspern Papers is a brilliant novella written by Henry James and serialized in the Atlantic in 1888. In short, The Aspern Papers is the story of an academic researcher, the novella's narrator, on the trail of bundles of personal letters and writings of a long-dead American poet, 'Jeffrey Aspern'. Apparently, these letters and papers are in the possession of a very old woman, Miss Juliana Bordereau, who lives with her middle-aged niece in an old rambling palazzo in a shabbier part of Venice. Our narrator rents a room from the women under false pretenses and endeavors to elicit the aid of the niece in discovering the whereabouts of the papers. He is not above using deceit and artifice in ingratiating himself with the women. It is clear from the outset that he is obsessed and consumed with obtaining the papers--he calls them his "spoils"--and cares little for the old woman's privacy or the memories of her lost love.
This is a creepy read, and one can't help but sympathize with the poor lonely middle-aged niece, Miss Tina, and even for the ancient Miss Juliana who lives for the memories of her love affair with Aspern. It becomes altogether uncomfortable for the reader as the narrator emotionally and psychologically manipulates the niece into becoming his accomplice in trying to find and acquire the papers. Frankly, the ending of the tale is incredibly satisfying to my mind.
I think the point that James is trying to make in this novella is that there really is quite the moral dilemma when it comes to personal privacy and the pursuit of information for intellectual or commercial purposes. In other words, if an author or poet becomes famous and well-read, the question becomes just how much of their life becomes fair game, if you will, for future biographers, researchers, and so forth? It is a tough question for sure.
As I read The Aspern Papers, I realized that other authors have written about this dilemma as well. For example, Edith Wharton's superb novella, The Touchstone, written in 1900 revolves around a man who sells bundles of very intimate personal letters he received from a former lover who was also a very famous author. A.S. Byatt sort of gets to this same point with correspondence between two fictional Victorian poets in her Booker Prize winning novel, Possession (1990). Towards this end then, if you read The Aspern Papers, I strongly urge you to immediately follow it up with a read of Wharton's The Touchstone. It is a wonderful way to link the two novellas, and is made even more meaningful in that Henry James and Edith Wharton spent much time together and became very good friends....more
Henry James is a prismatic kind of fellow with his fiction. I am beginning to understand that he likes to write about his characters and actions from Henry James is a prismatic kind of fellow with his fiction. I am beginning to understand that he likes to write about his characters and actions from differing perspectives, and his novella Daisy Miller is certainly an excellent example. Daisy Miller was written by James in 1878, and first serialized in Cornhill Magazine, edited by Virginia Woolf's father, Leslie Stephen.
In this short tale, the eponymous Daisy Miller is a wholesome and fresh young American woman on her first tour of Europe with her nine-year old brother, and her mother, who seems to be a bit of a hypochondriac. In Vevay, Switzerland, Daisy meets an American expatriate, Mr Winterbourne, who is visiting his aunt. In his late-twenties, Winterbourne becomes quite taken with the vivacious Daisy, and accompanies her on an unchaperoned tour of a nearby castle, drawing words of warning from his aunt. He encounters Daisy again later in the season in Rome and finds that she is spending much of her time with an Italian young man, much to the chagrin of the American expat community who begin to shun her in society.
Daisy Miller is all about perceptions and misunderstandings, and it seems that most of them work to the detriment of Daisy and her reputation among the expats. Winterbourne and the reader eventually do come to terms with Daisy and her 'free-wheeling' way of experiencing life, and come to realize that she is genuinely innocent and is much misunderstood and maligned by the Society wags around her. The reader eventually realizes that perhaps it is not Daisy that has the problem with societal norms and cultural values, but that the expat definition of appropriate behavior is outdated and out-of-touch with the 'modern' Americans that are now coming over to Europe from places like Daisy's Schenectady, New York.
This is an extremely well-written story that quickly engages the reader, with well-constructed characters, and a fascinating plot that provides a terrific snap-shot of what life must have been like in the latter half of the 19th century for Americans traveling abroad in Europe. While the ending is somewhat unexpected and sad, it makes the story even more powerful and thought-provoking. Finally, it is worth mentioning that a wonderful book-end to Daisy Miller is a short story written by Edith Wharton in 1934, entitled Roman Fever. I strongly recommend reading Wharton's short story once you've completed Henry James's Daisy Miller. ...more
The Europeans is an absolutely delightful novel! Fun from the first page through the last. Also, it is really more of a novella and can easily be readThe Europeans is an absolutely delightful novel! Fun from the first page through the last. Also, it is really more of a novella and can easily be read in one or two sittings.
The Europeans is actually a 'flip', if you will, in the normal Jamesian plot-line. In other words, rather than the story of an American expatriate in Europe, this is the tale of two American expats who come back to visit family in New England. This is the story of Eugenia, the Baroness Munster, and her younger brother Felix Young, who leave Germany because of her disintegrating marriage to a German prince. They end up moving in with the Wentworths, relatives on their late-mother's side of the family. I gotta say at this point too, the reader is gonna fall in love with Gertrude Wentworth--pretty much like everyone else in the novel!
Obviously, the staid New England Puritan Wentworths and their neighbors are largely over-awed by their European cousins, but everyone settles in after a bit and 'the good times roll'. Felix is an artist--a genuine good natured fellow and free spirit--and a big hit among all of his American friends and family. Eugenia, the Baroness, is a bit more of an enigma, and everyone minces about around her, but she too is actually a good soul. She ends up being a positive influence on several of the novels more important characters.
Romance abounds among all of the young people, and while it is fun to watch the flowers of love open and blossom, it is also worth following James as he guides the reader through the comparisons and contrasts between the pragmatic European continental sensibilities of Eugenia and Felix, and the fresh, but restrained New England practicalities of the Wentworth son and daughters and the Acton brother and sister.
This a free-spirited, flibbertigibbet novel that asks for nothing more than that the reader sit back and enjoy it. It ain't deep, it ain't all that serious, it is simply a heck of a good little story that upon finishing you realize that you're very glad that you read it. And you know what? I'll read it again sometime. Solid four of five stars for me!...more
Whilst very glad that I read this novel, I think it a bit flawed even though it is actually a well written novel. My problem with this book is the strWhilst very glad that I read this novel, I think it a bit flawed even though it is actually a well written novel. My problem with this book is the structure of the plot. Let me see if I can articulate my point here.
The premise of this novel is Jamesian all of the way, i.e., the contrast between the young and over-achieving American expatriate in and among European Old World sensibilities and cultural values, and in The American James perhaps takes it to an extreme. His protagonist, Christopher Newman, is really a very good fellow; a Civil War veteran; a self-made millionaire from California; and he's now on the prowl in Paris for a wife to match his fortune. Okay, that all seems pretty forthright and has promise as far as plots go.
Newman is introduced to a beauty of a young woman, from an old French landed-gentry family, Claire de Cintre, and immediately decides that she is the woman of his dreams. Even though she is widowed, and free to marry again, she has an incredibly conservative mother and elder brother who are appalled that she might consent to marry an American commoner. At the same time, Christopher strikes up a remarkably honest and refreshing relationship with Claire's younger brother Valentin, and they become fast friends.
Now, had James pursued--with some vigor--the love relationship between Christopher and Claire and the dysfunctionality of the Bellegard family to its conclusion, I think that this novel would have had significant promise. And he did so for approximately two-thirds of the book, but it took a fairly serious melodramatic turn that I believe knocked it down a good bit. Bluntly put, I felt that the plot went 'over the top' and just never quite recovered. Frankly, the ending was 'okay', and not entirely unexpected, it was just the getting there that was difficult.
Having read a few of Henry James's novels of late, I do understand that he is most interested in the contrasts between Americans and Europeans (particularly in the European environment), and certainly The American gets to that point from the first page. It starts well and then kind of devolves into a bit of a 'pot-boiler', and I'm just not sure that that was really necessary. Having said that though, I very much enjoyed reading The American and will undoubtedly read it again at some point....more
While Roderick Hudson was Henry James's second published novel (Watch and Ward being the first and serialized in The Atlantic Monthly in 1871), he alwWhile Roderick Hudson was Henry James's second published novel (Watch and Ward being the first and serialized in The Atlantic Monthly in 1871), he always considered Roderick Hudson his "first novel". James also freely admitted that Roderick Hudson was his take on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun (1860).
I went into this book with my eyes wide open and ended up loving it. This is early James and is completely accessible to any and all readers. It is, in my humble opinion, a bit of a Byronic--and an almost Gothic--tale that hits on several themes. First, there's the comparison and contrast between the Old World cultural values of Europe and the New World values of the American expatriate community. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, this novel felt very autobiographical in that both the eponymous 'Roderick Hudson' and the novel's other primary protagonist, 'Rowland Mallet', seem to represent the author at various times in his literary life. This novel really seemed to be the story of the battle--the constant tension--between the Artist and the Muse; and I have to really wonder if this really isn't Henry James pouring his heart and soul out upon every page.
We've all known artistic people like 'Roderick Hudson', and we care for 'em to the very best of our ability. Sadly though, artistic geniuses like them burn 'hot', and there's just not much that can be done; whether its a Kurt Cobain, a Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, Vincent Van Gogh, Egon Schiele, Lizzie Siddal, John Keats, or even a Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The candle burns hot, gutters, and then its out. Roderick Hudson is just such a story. Strange as it may sound, this novel pulsed and throbbed with passion and emotion like that found in the fiction of one of the Bronte sisters or even Mary Shelley.
For a 'first' novel--at least from James's perspective--this is an engaging and durable plot that completely hooks the reader. The novel also serves as a terrific travelogue as the protagonists travel throughout much of Europe highlighting the experiences of the American nouveau riche and brashness among the Old World European sensibilities. Who's right? Who's wrong? Well, you can gain some perspective on this question through reading about the experiences of Rowland Mallet and Roderick Hudson in this wonderful example of Henry James's early fiction. If you're just coming to the fiction of Henry James, Roderick Hudson is truly an excellent novel to start with.
This was an interesting novel to read. In all honesty it was serious step down from the masterpiece that precedes it, i.e., The Portrait of a Lady. HaThis was an interesting novel to read. In all honesty it was serious step down from the masterpiece that precedes it, i.e., The Portrait of a Lady. Having said that though, I think James perhaps intended this book to be lighter fare than Portrait. In fact, The Bostonians is loaded with satire, irony, and a goodly number of comedic moments. The novel's plot revolves around two cousins, Olive Chancellor and Basil Ransom, and the relationship that each desires to have with a young red-headed woman of magnetic personality, Miss Verena Tarrant. Verena and Olive are both deeply involved in the suffragette movement of the 1870s in the United States. Basil Ransom is a Confederate Civil War veteran from Mississippi now trying to eke out a living as a lawyer in New York City. While the two women spend much time in the novel speechifying on their commitment to women's rights, and Basil spends much of his time jocularly refuting their positions, the novel isn't really about feminism, it is all about relationships and feelings.
While Basil's efforts at establishing a romantic romantic relationship with Verena Tarrant were really rather predictable, it was the relationship between Verena and Olive that perhaps intrigued me the most. There's an ambiguity about Olive and her motives that puzzles me still, and while it might be easy to interpret Olive's feelings for Verena as a quasi-homosexual love, I also think that interpretation might mostly miss the mark. It is my understanding that it was this novel that actually gave rise to the term "Boston Marriage" describing the relationship of two unmarried women living together.
Finally, as I sit here and process my thoughts upon completing the novel, I have come to the conclusion that both Olive and Basil use and manipulate Verena for their own purpose. Verena, in my opinion, when she is first encountered by Olive and Basil, is brimming with the "Joy of Life" and is absolutely true to herself and her own feelings. Through the course of the novel she falls prey to the machinations and manipulations of both cousins, and ultimately ends up becoming in many ways much more like each of them. And I'm not sure that this is best for Verena.
Before I settle on my final verdict for James's The Bostonians, I would like to read it again sometime. I really do think there are a lot of undertones lurking about in this tale that can only be ferreted out upon subsequent reads. This is most definitely a historical novel, and some knowledge about the suffragette movement and spiritualism of the 1870s and life in post-Civil War America would surely help the reader put many of the themes and discussion topics in context....more
July 2014--This is my second time reading The Wings of the Dove in less than a year. It is a truly stunning novel and is becoming a another one of JamJuly 2014--This is my second time reading The Wings of the Dove in less than a year. It is a truly stunning novel and is becoming a another one of James's novels that I think is very near perfection, like that of The Portrait of a Lady. I am finding on this second careful and thoughtful re-read that I am actually experiencing the novel rather than simply reading it.
Kate Croy and Merton Densher are 'a pair to draw to' for sure. As much as I love Kate the woman--fiercely independent, stubborn, intelligent, and oh so clever--she's a top predator, a lioness stalking her prey, and there's almost a tinge of the sociopath to her. I dare not elaborate too much more for fear of giving away much of the plot, but suffice it to say that I think honor and integrity do not weigh as high in her values toolbox. Now, in defense of Kate Croy, I'll grant you that she has had a tough life; a mother who died early; a father who is completely spent and is considered a pariah by his social peers; a sister with children who is poor and reliant upon family for help; she lives with a domineering and opinionated aunt that endeavors to keep her on a tight leash; and, finally, she is in love with a man--Merton Densher--who has no money of his own. So, you do have to hand it to her that she is enterprising enough to take her own life (and Merton's as well) into her own hands. She is bound and determined to make a change--a change for the better.
Merton Densher--the poor journalist--is the counterweight on the other end of the see-saw. His immediate problem is that Kate Croy 'wears the pants' in this family. She spins him like a top on a table. Having said that though, we do see through the course of the novel that Merton Densher does develop a spine, and slowly, but surely, his honor and integrity begin to glow and then burn to a white heat.
The third leg of this 'stool' that is The Wings of the Dove is the incredibly rich--very, very rich--young American heiress, Miss Milly Theale. She had met Merton earlier while he was in the United States on assignment for his paper, and now she meets Kate Croy and Kate's aunt, Maud Lowder, and Merton again, of course, while in London on a European excursion. Well, Kate now sees an opportunity. Maybe now there is a way to obtain her family's consent to marry Merton, and just maybe that way is through the wealth of Milly Theale. Oh, but a minor problem might exist as Milly is more than just a bit 'sweet' on Merton.
Okay, I have sketched out the barest of details associated with this plot, and now I commend Henry James's brilliant novel into your capable hands. This is a psychological tour de force that will at various and several times leave you reeling in horror, shedding tears of great sadness, or nodding your head sagely as the tale is told page after page. But the story grabs you--heart and soul--and doesn't let up until the last sentence is read and digested; and it may well be one of the finest last sentences of all of modern fiction.
The late Henry James may be viewed as impenetrable and too much work by some, but so is an artichoke or even a pomegranate, but what a reward and treat if you spend the time to carefully read and delve into the minds of his characters. If you're honest with yourself you'll realize that there are people you know and love right now that could step into (or out of) the pages of this novel. Reading The Wings of the Dove opens another incredibly unique window into what makes us singularly human. Sometimes it is ugly and sometimes it is beautiful, and Henry James has given us both in this splendid novel....more
Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.)
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