Washington Square, Henry James
Washington Square, Henry James
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Washington Square

Author: Henry James

Narrator: Lloyd James

Unabridged: 7 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2006

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

The setting is New York City. The plot centers upon an heiress, Catherine Sloper, favored by neither beauty nor brilliance; her proud and pitiless father, Doctor Sloper; and her fortunehunting suitor, Morris Townsend. Through a series of confrontations and selfrevelations, James portrays their shifting relationships and his own views of love and cruelty, innocence and treachery.

Author Bio

American-born writer Henry James (1843–1916) authored 20 novels, 112 stories, 12 plays, and a number of literary criticisms.

James was born in New York City into a wealthy family. In his youth, James traveled back and forth between Europe and America. He studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna, and Bonn. At the age of nineteen, he briefly attended Harvard Law School, but he was more interested in literature than law. James published his first short story, "A Tragedy of Errors," two years later and then devoted himself entirely to literature. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he was a contributor to the Nation and Atlantic Monthly. His first novel, Watch and Ward, first appeared serially in the Atlantic.

After living in Paris, where he was a contributor to the New York Tribune, James moved to England. During his first years in Europe, James wrote novels that portrayed Americans living abroad. Between 1906 and 1910, he revised many of his tales and novels for the so-called New York edition of his complete works. Between 1913 and 1917, his three-volume autobiography-A Small Boy and Others, Notes of a Son and Brother, and The Middle Years (released posthumously)-was published. His last two novels, The Ivory Tower and The Sense of the Past, were left unfinished at his death.

Among James's masterpieces are Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, and The Wings of the Dove. In addition, James considered his 1903 work The Ambassadors his most "perfect" work of art.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on December 03, 2019

“If you are going to be pushed, you had better jump.” Almost everyone in this book is awful, but I... think I liked it? I read Henry James once, years ago, and I picked The Turn of the Screw, which turned out to be a bad decision. It put me off for a long time. I also hear that James gets a little......more

Goodreads review by Jim on April 18, 2022

[Revised, pictures and shelves added 4/15/22] Here we are in New York City in the mid-1880s, a bit before Edith Wharton’s time, but in the same social milieu. This is a kind of novel of manners and kind of a mid-19th Century soap opera. Our author is Henry James, so be prepared for the long, convolut......more

Goodreads review by Henry on September 03, 2024

Time the late 1840's in New York City, Catherine Sloper a twenty-one -year- old woman, is the daughter of a prominent and wealthy doctor, you'd think all the young men would be trying to marry her but Catherine is plain of face and very shy. There's a good probability, that she'll remain a spinster......more

Goodreads review by Flora on May 26, 2008

I love this book so much I can't bear it. As someone who adores just about every last word that Henry James (over-) wrote, it has never gotten any more deliciously (un-)satisfying than this -- a slim, tart little novel about plain, socially unpromising Catherine Sloper, whose wealthy father refuses......more