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Washington Square (Oxford World's Classics)

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"Washington Square", published in 1880, is not, and will not be, regarded as Henry James's best novel -- the honor would go to "The Portrait of a Lady" or much later works like "The Wings of the Dove" -- but this short but richly woven book deserve our attention. The book is always readable and intriguing while it does not fail to deliver the amazingly realistic characters living in New York City of the 19th century. Certainly, this is the best place for any beginners of James to start.

The book starts with an introduction of a New York physician Dr. Sloper and his only daughter Catherine. While the doctor gained respectable position among the patients, he loses his wife suddenly after the birth of Catherine, who grows up to be a not particularly clever nor beautiful girl. Catherine, painfully shy, becomes a dutiful, but perhaps dull, daughter, the kind of a girl whose awkward behaviors her father approves always with a little detached attitude.

Then, comes a good-looking man Morris Townsend, who has no money but gives a word of "gentleman." But what does that mean when Doctor suspects this is just another fortune hunter, who is seeking for the money Catherine is to inherit after his death? Still, Doctor is half amused, even entertained, by this unexpected visitor who now seems to have gained the love of his daughter. But he didn't expect that Catherine would show surprising obstinate attitude in spite of his threat of disinheriting her.

The book is written, as a whole, with a very tragic note, but as you read on, you will find that, just like Jane Austen's narrator, "Washington Square" has an amusing aspect of comedy at first. The meddling widow Mrs. Penniman, whose wild imagination is one of her weakness, is a good example. She runs around between Morris and Catherine, only to annoy both of them. Henry James's touch when he treats these characters, however, sounds more incisive and even colder than Jane Austen's, if not totally cruel -- and the cruelty is gradually obvious as the plot unfolds.

Our main concern is about Catherine. The story is in itself trite and insignificant (James heard the original episode which the book is based on, in England from actress Fanny Kemble, and the brief note remains), but it is the growth (or change) of the apparently insipid heroine, and the interations between her and other characters (or between those other characters) that always impress us greatly. James's pen ruthlessly cuts into the hearts of those characters, and the intense, skillfully-constructed dialogue which show what is going on in the characters would instantly grip the readers' mind.

Some readers might champion more condensed prose of "The Golden Bowl", deeming "Washington Square" as too lightweight. In a sense, it is, I admit; the novel is not long, and the syntax is very easy to understand (for James, I mean). Still, the book is never dull, always fast-paced (for James, again), and the touching fate of the heroine Catherine is not a thing to be missed.

The novel is turned into films and they are also great, I must add. William Wyler's version is a masterpiece, with Olivia de Havilland/Montgomery Clift/Ralph Richardson trio, but more recent production made in 1997 is also good.

Washington Square is a searing portrait of selfishness, cruelty and manipulation that brings a radically new psychological depth to the traditional 19th century novel of manners. In Dr. Sloper James created one of his most insidious characters; a clever, genial man of the world who would rather sees his principles confirmed than his daughter happy. Catherine, the plain victim of a suave fortune-seeking fiancé, has to rank with Melville's Bartleby as a model of passive resistance. As she awakens to her father's flaws, Catherine shows the plodding strength of innocence in the face of his high-handed manipulation. The self-absorbed spinster aunt Lavinia completes the picture, using her niece's courtship as a way to work out her own thwarted romantic desires. Everyone is using everyone for something else, in typical Jamesian fashion, but doing it with style--even in this early work, James had an uncanny feeling for the crude drives that veiled themselves behind good manners and the conventions of respectable society. A great read that has to rank as one of James's darkest and most insightful novels.

One of the shorter novels by Henry James and relatively simple, comparing to his other works, "Washington Square" is a story of hidden emotions, fear of breaking conventions, and hypocrisy resulting from those conventions.

Dr. Austin Sloper is a prosperous, respected Manhattan physician, a widower with one daughter, Catherine. He boasts a sharp mind and considers himself a good judge of character. Although Catherine is rather a plain and uninteresting girl, admittedly even by her family, she has prospect of coming into considerable wealth. Therefore, when she meets Morris Townsend, a handsome, but idle man, and falls in love, her father is on guard and after some research fiercely opposes the marriage, on the graounds that Townsend is a fortune hunter. Lavinia, Catherine's aunt, however, tries to "help" the couple... Catherine, in the center of attention and subjected to manipulations from people claiming to love her, would seem to be a miserable creature, but she has perhaps the most puzzling and complex personality of all the characters!

These four people are the core of the novel and their psychological portraits are subtle yet acute (nobody is a flat, archetypal figure), the hidden faults and qualities of the main and background characters make them very real and complex, the irony towards the society is very clear. There are many things the reader has to fathom from hints and allusions, not everything is explicitly said so to some extent the motives of the protagonists are open to interpretation.

Henry James is a master of psychological novel of his time, great observer and talented writer (comparable maybe to Jane Austen, he also wrote about subjects he well knew). Although "Washington Square" is not considered one of his best novels, it is nevertheless a masterpiece. Many of the sentences are so full of sarcasm, witty or so extremely right, that even nowadays they could be uttered without change - I consider James a writer, whose work never ages, which is a kind of paradox, considering how firmly they are placed in his time. In addition, it is delightful to read about New York City and imagine times, when Washington Square was uptown...

Though James rejected this tale for inclusion in the New York Edition of his works, presumably because it was too simple and straightforward, many readers have not shared his judgment, insisting instead the work has great merit.
Its theme is an intriguing one that raises the following question: Is it better to be clever or good? Even here, for James, the answer is not all that simple, his conclusion being it's probably best to be some subtle combination of both.
Dr. Sloper and Morris Townsend, the central male figures, are clever men, but each is deficient in his own way. The caustically witty Doctor wants to be just, but his pride in being right about Morris as a fortune hunter ultimately overrides his fatherly concerns. For this reason, he becomes a sort of Hawthorne-like villain, a scientific, detached, almost gleeful observer of his own daughter's plight, rather than a suitably caring parent. He suffers, finally, not from an excess of cleverness, but from a defect of generous felt emotion. Morris, too, is a definitely clever character, but at the same time he's the spoiled creation of enabling women, a boy-man who's more a self-interested player at life than a vital participant in it, an early version of the fatherless "It's all about me" youth of later modern fiction.
The heroine Catherine is a sorely beset young woman, pulled this way and that, now by her right-at-all-costs father, then by her fortune hunting suitor. She is a good, dutiful daughter throughout, though the novel details her growth in intelligent personhood. She finally gains the independence needed to tell her manipulative father where his parental rights end and her own moral self begins. Similarly, once her education in life is complete, she is able to avoid a final romantic capitulation, telling the shameless Morris in the novel's last scene what her mature self now requires he hear from her. Naturally, he's too self-involved to accurately understand her real character.
This short novel, finally, is rich in witty literary parody. It's closing chapters read like an inverted "Odyssey," with the patiently waiting Catherine weaving embroidery in Penelope-like fashion, until the surprise return of the long wandering Morris. All in all, despite the masterly author's doubts, this is a work of considerable distinction.

Henry James's novel looks almost alarmingly simple: A young woman must choose between the love of a father and the love of a young man. Surely, the notion is too slender to sustain a whole book. How can he pull it off? Yet James manages a number of surprises. The simplicity is a ruse. Chief among the surprises is the character of Catherine Sloper, James's protagonist. James immediately tells us she is stupid. How dare he? Who wants to read about such a creature? Perhaps because readers naturally empathize with the defenseless, our sympathies sweep to her; no one should deserve the opprobrium of this narrator. And we are not wrong. Catherine is simple, but she is gifted with dignity, honesty, and the ability to endure. Her position is morally superior, even if her father is correct; her paramour is a bounty hunter, and nothing more. Yet that is among the other surprises in store, since James uses his omniscient narrator selectively, keeping Townsend's heart obscured for nearly 3/4ths of the book. The story still fascinates us, because it is essentially about money. Gaining wealth and status we have not earned is an American obsession. Perhaps it is the American dream. And while eschewing it will not make us happy--there is no happiness in Washington Square, only the kind of humor that would be cruel if it were not so funny--it will finally allow us to maintain our dignity "for life, as it were."

"Everyone likes Washington Square. Even the denigerators of Henry James." This short novel combines the deeply insightful character analysis almost exclusive to Henry James, without all of his often difficult and tiresome prose style. The plot seems simple enough: Catherine, our strikingly three-dimensional protagonist, is faced with a difficult decision. Should she follow the advice of her sentimental aunt and marry Morris, the poor, jobless, seemingly benevolent lover? Or should she listen to her cold, intellectual father, to whom she is completely devoted, and examine Morris' admittedly questionable motives for wanting to marry Catherine, an heiress? James' depth of analysis of his characters psychology is unparalleled throughout American literature, and this too-often forgotten classic should appeal to most of us. "Washington Square" is one of James' earlier works, but it does not lack the brilliant psychological observations and social critique of his later novels. However, for those who find his sometimes laborious and complex prose style a bit tiring, "Washington Square" is a breath of fresh air. I recomend this book to anyone who enjoys American literature.

"Washington Square" is one of Henry James's earliest, shortest, and most accessible novels. However, the term "most accessible" is relative: "Washington Square" is easy to read compared to James's later work like "Wings of the Dove," but if you have never read James, be prepared for unusual syntax, long, twisty sentences, and very dense description of characters and actions. Although this is a short novel, it is not to be read in an afternoon.

The book is about a young woman named Catherine Sloper, the only surviving child of a doctor. The doctor, while he treats his daughter kindly, regards her as dull, unattractive, and unspectacular in every way. He is therefore suspicious when a young man named Morris Townsend takes an interest in her. Townsend is charismatic, but poor; Catherine, because of an inheritance from her mother and money she is due to get from her father, is quite well off. Dr. Sloper suspects, and the reader is clearly meant to see, that Townsend is interested in Catherine only for her money. The doctor attempts to separate them, threatening to cut Catherine out of his will, while at the same time Catherine's idealistic, meddlesome aunt attempts to bring them together. Both are surprised when Catherine's will turns out to be stronger than they had reckoned.

In many ways this is a sad and affecting book, but I can't wholly recommend it. Part of it is just my own personal impatience with James's style. Also, short as the book is, it is still really too long for the subject. A note on the text indicates that it was originally intended as a short story, and it might have been better that way. But if you are looking for a relatively easy introduction to Henry James, this or "Daisy Miller" would be a good choice.

The introduction to this paperback edition, by Peter Conn, (I always read introductions after I finish a book)- places WS in the pantheon of American letters. Of itself, it does not belong. But by its birthright, it does. It was James' last American novel, a product of his distinguished NY childhood. James fled the states for Europe soon after its publication. NY, he explained had too little social conflict and diversity, (how's that for irony.) Pre Civil War New York was, at least to the middle classes who make up the characters, a tranquil, unhurried and well- mannered, society. The same manners, from a glamorous, if not tragic slant were drawn in The Age of Innocence and other (to me) more intoxicating tales by his friend Edith Wharton. Hawthorne, we are told, was one of James' masters, his influence is felt in W.S.

On its own, the story is middling. As an evocation of another time, without any real connection to what New York was soon to become, it lures the reader into a forgotten past. Any American lit student or NY city buff will cherish it for its august parentage.

The plot lacks surprises or unexpected twists. It centers on the maneuverings of a gold digging scoundrel in pursuit of a plain and unsophisticated heiress. Her father, a self-made, well-off physician, adamantly and sadistically condemns the match- he is right about the man's motives, but his methods are cruel. The comic and sometimes despicable aunt, Lavinia, living completely on her brother's charity, is turned into a divisive fool, so enamored of Townsend, the fox, that she allows herself to be manipulated against her niece and brother. During a trip abroad, where father and daughter hoped to resolve the division, Lavinia opened the door to the doctor's own office, drinking the doc's finest wine and puffing his cigars, we see the true soul of the pretender as though looking into the future.
Of the main characters, only Catherine, the heiress is sympathetic, and more so as she displays her resolve and honor. The others are ensconced in their own past beliefs and devious plottings, reducing Catherine to a symbol, without life. Her father's position and the strength of his objections, after all, are based less on feelings for his daughter than his mortification that Morris Townsend, a rogue and layabout would live off his estate.
The story has appealed to stage writers and filmmakers since it was written 120 years ago. Catherine was played by Olivia de Haviland to Montgomery Clift's Townsend; directed by William Wyler in 1949. In 1997, it was made into a film again starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney as the doctor, Maggie Smith as Lavinia. With the strength of those players and the cinematographers to vivify the otherwise pale story, I can imagine the results would bear watching. NY, before the great migrations seems closer to the antebellum south than what it has so magnificently and tragically come to represent.

I had the pleasure of playing Morris Townsend in The Heiress, the play version of James' Washington Square at my local theatre. In preparation for the role I read the novel and was delighted. Unlike the play, which tries to make up the viewers mind about who is good and who is bad, James' original novel is all about gray area; one never really knows who is the antagonists are. Catherine, no doubt, is the protagonist, but its hard to gauge who the real villian is, Morris or Catherine's father. Either way, it doesn't matter as Catherine ultimately makes her own decision, which is what the book is really about: taking control of one's life. Like any James work, Washington Square is a thought-provoking read. Enjoy!

I picked this out of a box of my university books while cleaning out the basement, thinking I would try a page or two before tossing it. An hour later, I climbed the stairs, admitting I was going to read the whole thing and enjoy it. I think the other reviewers have done a marvelous job of plot detail as well as literary merits in terms of character stude, period piece, etc, so I will add just the one thing I haven't read in the few reviews I have read:

Henry James is a wordsmith. He enjoys words, relishes them, and composes with them in such a way as to share his love of language with the reader.

THIS is what made this book a joy to me. Many times I found myself rereading sentences and then reading them aloud, just pleased with the way they were worded. "She had given this account, at least, to everyone but the Doctor, who never asked for explanations which he could entertain himself any day with inventing," writes James in Chapter II of Mrs. Penniman, and I had to read that one three or four times before I stopped smiling.

Read it while awake, read it while alert, read it when you have time and quiet to enjoy the pure music of James' prose, for at least to me, that is the beauty of Washington Square.