Patagonia, The (Large Print) [Large Print] [Paperback]

Henry James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary;

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

American novelist, short-story writer, and man of letters, James is a major figure in the history of the novel. One of the pioneers of psychological realism and complex prose style, he holds a place as an unparalleled interpreter of the world of today. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: www.ReadHowYouWant.com (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1425007767
• ISBN-13: 978-1425007768
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Kindle choices -- choose on price or favorite source, February 25, 2010

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Patagonia (Kindle Edition)

This novella has an interesting history; James was quite interested in Trollope, who had published a novella a few years earlier called "The Panama". In it, a young woman embarks on a long sea voyage to meet and marry her fiance after a long engagement. James apparently did not approve of the deux ex machina ending that Trollope used to resolve her difficulties, and wrote his own version, in which the characters take their fate into their own hands.

I read this novella aloud to my wife, and we were both struck by how well James described Boston and the trans-Atlantic crossing on the Patagonia. The settings were beautifully described, and several of the characters were well drawn and very realistic. In many respects, it seemed like a "stripped down" version of "Daisy Miller". The depths of character analysis in both novellas is very compelling.

We were particularly impressed with how quickly a human society formed on the ship, and how powerful that society acted on many of the characters. In part, it seemed, the ship itself imparted its own nature on the passengers (something we've noticed on our own cruises); this ship was protecting but also quite aloof, a good setting for a human tragedy: 'The Patagonia was slow, but spacious and comfortable, and there was a motherly decency in her long nursing rock and her rustling old- fashioned gait, the multitudinous swish, in her wake, as of a thousand proper petticoats. It was as if she wished not to present herself in port with the splashed eagerness of a young creature."

A contempary reviewer in 1888 in the "Literary World" was struck by the same thought: "The Patagonia' is a story of a voyage from Boston to Liverpool, wherein a very natural and lifelike picture is drawn of the petty interests and small scandals which serve to beguile a voyage. There is no better ' school for scandal' than an Atlantic liner, and in the case of the Patagonia a fund of gossip is pro vided by the somewhat pathetic story of Grace Mavis, a handsome girl who is going to meet her fiance at Liverpool and to be married at once. She has been engaged to Mr. Porterfield, a very worthy and devoted individual, for ten years, but he has been ' faintly pursuing' his profession in Paris nearly the whole of that time, while she has remained at Boston. Grace Mavis belongs to a less fashionable circle than that of her good-natured chaperon, Mrs. Nettlepoint, and during the voyage she sees rather too much, for her own peace of mind, of that lady's fascinating son. The end of her history is a sad one, but it is natural and well worked out."

I checked over several of the versions of this novella for Kindle using the free samples. Despite the range of prices, there does not appear to be any real difference between the texts, and no additional material provided to help the reader understand the novella in any greater depth.

We enjoyed this novella very much -- it reads very well aloud where the parenthetical clauses are clearly delineated and can be delivered verbally with only a slight change in tone, to make them easy for the listener to understand.

Robert C. Ross 2010