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HRH's review

HRH's review
rating:
recommended for: Those who don't need resolution

I had read Daisy Miller and enjoyed it so I thought I would like another Henry James novel, Washington Square. Furthermore, one of the remarks on the cover said something about the man writing as good a family story as Jane Austen. What could be better?

A lot of things actually.

I even read somewhere that James didn't like the novel so he didn't include it in his anthology. I'm surprised he made it through the first time knowing the ending as he presumably did.
Staged in New York City, Washington Square is the story of Catherine Sloper, the twenty-something daughter of a wealthy physician. When the handsome, clever, and prospectless Morris Townsend courts and proposes to Catherine, her father vehemently refuses his consent which basically adds up to an inheritance a third of what was originally promised. The books tediously accounts the little meetings and conversations, the escapade of Catherine's Aunt Pennyman, Catherine's trip to Europe, and Morris's eventual "jilting&...more I had read Daisy Miller and enjoyed it so I thought I would like another Henry James novel, Washington Square. Furthermore, one of the remarks on the cover said something about the man writing as good a family story as Jane Austen. What could be better?

A lot of things actually.

I even read somewhere that James didn't like the novel so he didn't include it in his anthology. I'm surprised he made it through the first time knowing the ending as he presumably did.
Staged in New York City, Washington Square is the story of Catherine Sloper, the twenty-something daughter of a wealthy physician. When the handsome, clever, and prospectless Morris Townsend courts and proposes to Catherine, her father vehemently refuses his consent which basically adds up to an inheritance a third of what was originally promised. The books tediously accounts the little meetings and conversations, the escapade of Catherine's Aunt Pennyman, Catherine's trip to Europe, and Morris's eventual "jilting" of Catherine. The reader believes that at any moment the real story will begin.

There are no side plots, only a handful of characters, and no other subject addressed that the "will they -won't they" question of Catherine's and Morris' wedding.

The ending was the worst of all. In a chapter or two, James leads us through Catherine's life after her engagement if broken off. For a moment one guesses that it will have an ending similar to Persuasion, where the slightly older version of the meant-to-be couple finally comes together. But then Catherine just keeps getting older. Thirty, Forty, Fifty. There is a reason why the romantic escapades of old people are not usual. It is not romantic to hear how the hero has become fat and bald. Finally, Morris shows up and one thinks, aah finally! But no, Catherine awkwardly refuses him and that is the book. It was the sort of moment where one looks about oneself, sure that something was dropped. If one could only find the last pages then the book would be good and resolved.

Alas, that was the book.
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message 1: by Melanie

12/10/2007 08:30AM

nicely put. I also was wondering when the real story would start.