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by: Henry James; Intro Cynthia Ozick
Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9781857151527
Format: Import
ISBN: 1857151526
Label: EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
Manufacturer: EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 1993
Publisher: EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
Sales Rank: 2637934
Studio: EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Psychological Policier
If you are not prepared to read several scenes in this novel slowly and often, there is a very good chance that, like many academic reviewers, you will leave it thinking less well of the characters in it than you do of yourself for having, with only moderate encouragement from James, "seen through them." Not many of them are easy to like. Mrs. Brook in particular is, as James clearly implies in his preface to the New York edition, essentially a character in a French novel--charming, beautiful, terminally ... Read More
Rating: - An Uncharacteristic Gem by a Literary Giant
This novel tells a familiar tale: old-fashioned man enters a tangled web of wealthy British fashionable types, makes a proposal, and the web falls apart. Mr. Longdon, a wealthy old man from Suffolk, returns to London to find the children and grandchildren of his ancient love. Out of respect for this unspoiled affection, he takes an interest in the grand-daughter of his love and tries to pull her out of the circle of influence that has, effectively, soiled her. James manages some interesting and convincing ... Read More
Rating:  - "Maisie" was better
Critics will often pair this novel with his earlier "What Maisie Knew."
Both novels deal with the child's / adolescent's emerging conscience, while faced with adult corruption.
In "Maisie" and "Awkward," we see James following up on his fascination with Hawthornian themes.
James's facility with dialogue, in which abrupt blushes are loaded with meaning, is apparent here. The drawing-room conversations reminded me of a party in a swimming pool; each character is constantly, in ... Read More
Rating:  - A Frustrating Book, Unlikeable Characters
I thought the value of this book lied not in its story (it was forgettable), but as a sort of cultural museum, allowing one to look into what English "high society" was like at the end of the 19th century.
What it was, I found, was horribly superficial and empty. These people had little to do with their time except gather at eachother's parlours and chat idlely and endlessly. But with nothing to talk about and all day to talk about it, it was considered better to sound "clever" than to have ... Read More
Rating: - Great Plot, Could Have Used a Different Author
When Nanda Brookenham "comes out" in her mother's salon, one question is immediately which of its male members she will marry--and soon. The urgency is partly financial: Nanda's parents seem to live almost beyond their means and she has no dowry. It is also moral: Given the salon's racy talk and unconcealed sexual intrigues, how can Nanda long continue to present an image of the "pure young girl" it was assumed most men would want to marry? And finally, it may be familial: Does Mrs. Brookenham really ... Read More
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