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What Maisie knew (Doubleday anchor books)

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Henry James (Author)
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Product Details

  • Series: Doubleday anchor books
  • Mass Market Paperback: 280 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday (1954)
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0006ATQ2C
  • Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,305,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
The Corruption of Maisie
By Martin Asiner on August 14, 2006
Format: Paperback
WHAT MAISIE KNEW is probably the weirdest novel by Henry James. He had already written of seamy themes before this, but now he writes a variation of one of his favorite themes--that of the corruption of the innocent. Maisie is a young female child, perhaps six years old whose parents are getting divorced. In the best of situations divorce hits hard, and this was far from the best. Maisie's parents, Beale and Ida Farange are morally depraved and care not a whit for the welfare of their daughter. Maisie is a good-natured child who wants only to be loved by the parents she loves. Maisie is the prototypical Jamesian innocent about to be plunged into a maelstrom of decay.

The terms of the divorce allow Maisie to live with each parent at six month intervals, and this she does. It is what she sees and happens to her that begin to cloud Maisie's moral universe. To begin with when she stays with her father, his friends paw her in ways that smack of sexual abuse. Maisie's mother, Ida, hires a governess, Miss Overmore, to care for Maisie. Soon enough Miss Overmore begins an affair with Maisie's father, Beale, ultimately marrying him. Ida follows suit by marrying her lover, Sir Claude. So now Maisie must adjust to a set of step parents. Claude's interest in his step-daughter verges on the incestuous--indeed later on when Maisie is thirteen, she outright propositions him. Ida hires a new governess, Mrs. Wix, to take the place of the erstwhile Miss Overmore. Mrs. Wix is a decent elderly woman who truly loves Maisie and tries to inculcate in her a moral center of goodness. This sense of goodness is put to the test immediately, when Maisie's remarried parents begin a new dance of musical lovers.Read more ›
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Nasty, funny, and searing
By tobb delow on August 1, 2004
Format: Paperback
I have not read any other James, except for Daisy Miller over 20 years ago, but picked this up on a friend's recommendation.

Yes, you do have to read this book slower than most novels, but it is well worth it. It is a sharp, dark, and devastating satire on how adult use children. Each character that Maisie encounters uses her as a prop to meet their own emotional needs--any affection they give her is purely secondary.

Perhaps many people do not like this book because it is so relentlessly dark. As the book goes on and Maisie is more and more aware of by the coldness around her the same behavior that makes the reader snicker in the first chapters becomes painful.

If you are looking for a escapist period novel--skip this one. If you want something more probing--this is well worth picking up.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
James' heart rending comment on parental responsibility
By acid_raine_burns on December 26, 2012
Format: Paperback
The book opens with a vicious divorce between Beale and Ida Farange. From brief details given, it seemed like a circus of mud-slinging. And at the centre of it all is their little daughter, Maisie. The court decides that she is to split her time between her parents. Six months are spent with her mother; six months with her father. And, through all of this, both of her parents decide to use her as their own personal weapon. Sending her to the other parent with little "gems" and messages, Maisie cannot help being a carrier pigeon for her parents' continued hostility. As things progress, each of her parents remarry. And, from all appearances, her step-parents love her, care for her, and give her more love than either of her parents. However, being the people that they are, her parents decide to partake in adulterous affairs with other people, and, whether it is full intentional or not, they involve Maisie. All the while, her step-parents are drawn together out of their mutual love for the child. Instead of being an innocent child, Maisie is thrust into an adult world of intrigue, drama, and failed relationships.

From the first page to the last, this book is heart rending! It appears as though Maisie was merely an accessory to her parents. She was constantly used as a way to send hurtful and damning messages to each parent, they wanted her as their own information gatherer, and so on. Every horrible thing you can imagine, her parents made her do. And, unless she had some juicy tidbit about the other parent, neither parent was interested in her company, and she was cast off to governesses. When her parents do speak with her concerning other things, she is subjected to horrible psychological abuse.Read more ›
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
You began with the wrong book
By Susan L. Feldman on May 18, 2013
Format: Paperback
James is not an easy writer and you began with the wrong work. Believe me, he is worth the effort. It's kind of like taking up resistance training and starting with 200 pound weights. You need to start with an earlier work of James. James wrote all of his work in long hand and he wanted very much to be a dramatist. He failed and this was one of the tragedies of his professional life. However, later in life he developed arthritis and hired an amanuensis to take his work down from dictation. And this freed something in him and his work became denser as he was allowed to "act out" as it were his ideas. "What Masie Knew" is one of the works in his later stage - and just about the point where he began to develop an ever more rich style. After some practice, you will be able to read a book like "What Masie Knew" and the language won't seem dense and inaccessible as you will have become used to the flow - in the same way that eventually you can lift 200 pounds if you work at it. Begin instead with "The Europeans" - this is also short but very charming. Then read some of his "short stories" which are actually novellas: "The Turn of the Screw" is one of the great ghost stories of all time; "The Beast in the Jungle" gave me chills and I read it the first time in a hot bath; "The Aspern Papers" will leave you with more questions than when you began. Then read "The Portrait of a Lady" which is one of the great novels of all time. If you read that and don't like James - then he is not for you. But he is worth the try.
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