Customer Reviews

The Golden Bowl (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Henry James (1843-1916)was born into a wealthy family in New York City. His father was a philosopher; his brother William a teacher at Harvard and his sister Alice a noted diarist. Henry James pioneered the international novel in which innocent Americans have to deal with evil and the mores and complexities of life in Europe.
The Golden Bowl was published in 1904 and is the last of the three famous novels in HJ's late period. The other two novels are "The Wings of a Dove" and The Ambassadors." All of these novels are difficult reading.
The Golden Bowl tells the long story of Adam Verver a fabulously wealthy widower from American City who is living in London. His daughter Maggie weds Prince Amerigo from Rome while Adam weds Maggie's schoolgirl acquaintance the fetching Charlotte Stant. In complex prose and psychological exploration James looks at this quartet's relationship with microscopic (and to some readers boring, prolix and dull scrutiny.) Mrs. Assingham is the friend of the characters who makes comments on what is going on in their unusual familial situation. She knew that Amerigo and Charlotte were lovers prior to their respective marriages to father Adam and daughter Maggie. Sometimes it seems that Maggie has almost an incestuous relationship with her indulgent father.
In the biblical book of Ecclesiastes the golden bowl is symbolic of life. In this late Victorian novel it stands for life and also the marriage of Maggie and Amerigo. The bowl has a crack in it symbolizing their less than perfect union. Maggie learns of the affair between Charlotte and Amerigo through intricate psychological detective work, the discovery of the golden bowl in a London antique shop and conversation with Mrs. Assingham. Therefore, the novel is a bildungsroman in which we are able to trace the maturation of Maggie from a callow girl to a responsible human being. As the novel ends she and Amerigo and their child remain in England while Adam and Charlotte leave for America.
This novel is not for a novice to James or adult fiction. His sentences are long and he spends a great deal of time exploring the emotions within the minds of Amerigo, Mrs. Assingham and Maggie. Very little action occurs
other than in the fertile imagination of the characters (especially Maggie). The Golden Bowl is one of the greatest novels ever written and is the best novel authored by Henry James. It demands to be read slowly with full concentration and can be better understood through rereading and paying attention to the critical comments on the work. Henry James is not everyone's cup of tea but he is worthy of study and appreciation for his mastery of the art of fiction.

Absolutely superb, stimulating, satisfying, rewarding masterpiece, one of Henry James' best, and he is probably my favorite author. Actually, I disagree with the review which pronounces this as his best novel--I think that honor would go to "The Ambassadors," which I re-read every few years and have, since I first came upon it in college. I so much love the manner in which he writes, the simple subject matter which he transforms into gripping drama, the lengthy, almost convoluted sentences that force one to remember, to pay attention, to think. All of James' novels, including this one, seem to be written to be re-read again and again. There are simply too many layers, too many subtleties, there is too much psychological action, real human emotion and interaction to absorb in a single read through. I would recommend "The Golden Bowl" to anyone, though those who haven't read a Henry James novel before might start with "Portrait of a Lady," "The American," "Daisy Miller," or something less stylistically complex. I suspect that as one immerses himself in the writings of Henry James, there just won't be enough of his writings to satisfy the whetted appetite for his works.

While I have not read every novel there is to read, I can say that I have not read anything like this - not even within the Jamesian canon. It is difficult to summarize The Golden Bowl, because if I were simply to reveal the plot to you, it would seem hardly to merit 600 of James's densest pages. What is it? That is the question, and in fact, it is a novel about questions - watching people ask questions. What is the golden bowl? Does it mean nothing? Anything? Can I MAKE something or someone have a particular "value" - a market "price?" How do I ascertain someone else's knowledge without being explicit? What is worth sacrificing: a lover, a father, a friend? To quote from the novel, "knowledge, knowledge was a fascination as well as a fear." Such is the attitude of the reader as he or she approaches the text.
I had the good fortune to read this novel with the Penguin editor, whose enthusiasm for Maggie Verver and Colonel Bob was infectious; The Golden Bowl has among the smallest cast of characters of any James novel, and it is easy to feel deeply connected to a given figure in a given reading. Like "The Ambassadors," "The Golden Bowl" is a novel about growing up. You will also grow up as a reader and possibly as a person if you wrestle hard enough with this text. And it is quite a wrestle: James's writing here is extremely oblique, and there are passages that are remarkably obscure. (The section on Adam Verver especially comes to mind; I read that three or four times and there are few sentences that are a tad regrettable in their sinuosity.) If you find yourself struggling, you're not alone. But the struggle is worth it. All the characters in this novel struggle with the truth, as does, it seems, Henry James.

It is with a heavy heart -- although, I hope, not a heavy hand -- that I commit this review to the Amazonian aether. Graham Greene's description of Henry James comports entirely with my own: "He is as solitary in the world of the novel as Shakespeare is in that of poetry." In terms of energy and skill, of fiendish pursuit of psychological minutia, as an architect of his character's souls and of gorgeous, perfectly turned prose, James is godlike.

Here, however, all of those Jamesian virtues, particularly with respect to his prose, seem to have passed the state of ripeness, and gone over to a sickly sweet state of rot. The plain fact is, this novel is nearly impossible to understand. All of those Jamesian subordinate clauses, those secondary and tertiary referents, are mashed and clotted together as though in some great, confused dish that is part dessert, part entree, and part antipasto.

The action, too -- save for that between the main set of secondary characters, the Assinghams -- is strangely inert. The middle portion of the novel, which tracks Maggie's discovery, or growing awareness, of the problem, sags terribly under the weight of James's orotundity. This is similar to the sort of psychological action limned with such sureness of touch in "The Portrait of a Lady," "What Maisie Knew", or even "The Aspern Papers." Typically for James, it is where the previous blankness (or mild strangeness) of a character is revealed to be absolute moral depravity. This sort of "reveal" is usually James's strength, and in the context of this book, should be the portion of greatest suspense on the reader's part. Here, however, Maggie's gradual descent from naivete is flat, even a bit predictable.

Now, it is to be remembered that we have, after all, a work of the greatest English novelist under consideration. That is to say, even weak, ropey James is still Henry James -- it is just not up to the impossibly high standards set by earlier works. Indeed, the episodes between the Colonel and Fanny Assingham are amusing, and done with the deftness that one usually associates with this writer.

Yes, yes. We all love THE AMBASSADORS. And until THE GOLDEN BOWL, it had been my favorite as well. Sure, I'll concede that THE GOLDEN BOWL is difficult to read. But it's not like, say, Thomas Pynchon or James Joyce. It's only difficult because of the long sentence constructions with, as another reviewer observed, the multiple subordinate clauses. It's not as if anything is intentionally encrypted. These subordinate clauses are necessary because that's how we think. Ha! Well, that's how I think anyway.

If anyone had told me that a minute in real time would be two pages or more in the novel I don't know if I could have started it. However, if one reads slowly and concentrates a little bit, it's really not hard to follow. James captures the characters' assessment of each possible utterance and its potential outcomes before the they speak. He puts us right into the center of their minds. Take for example, the incredible showdown early in the book between Charlotte and Fanny Assingham. Following the conversation as each wins and loses the upper hand was thrilling. James tells us exactly what they are thinking and how those thoughts alter as each lady takes her turn in besting the other.

Then there's Maggie's slow realization of her situation. There is not one shred of evidence presented to her before she's fully aware of all that's going on. It's merely in observing how utterly and unnaturally normal and accommodating that Charlotte and Amerigo are that makes everything clear to her. One has to doubt whether this is truly plausible, but it makes for a great novel.

This order of a golden oldie was handled "on time, as promised, and accurate"; as most of my order are!.