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Washington Square (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 1880 first edition cover of Washington Square |
|
| Author | Henry James |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom, United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers, New York City Macmillan and Co., London |
| Publication date | Harper: 1 December 1880 Macmillan: 15 January 1881 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | Harper: 266 pp Macmillan: volume one, 265pp; volume two, 271pp |
| ISBN | NA |
Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The plot of the novel is based upon a true story told to James by his close friend, British actress Fanny Kemble. The book is often compared to Jane Austen's work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. James was hardly a great admirer of Jane Austen, so he might not have regarded the comparison as flattering. In fact, James was not a great fan of Washington Square itself. He tried to read it over for inclusion in the New York Edition of his fiction (1907-1909) but found that he couldn't, and the novel was not included. Other readers, though, have sufficiently enjoyed the book to make it one of the more popular works of the Jamesian canon.
Contents |
Dr. Austin Sloper, a rich and intelligent widower, lives in Washington Square, New York with his only surviving child, Catherine, a sweet-natured woman who is a great disappointment to her father, being physically plain and mentally dull. Sloper's beloved wife, along with a promising young son, died many years before. His silly busybody sister, the widowed Lavinia Penniman, is the only other member of the doctor's household.
One day, Catherine meets the charming Morris Townsend at a party and is swept off her feet. Morris courts Catherine, aided by Mrs. Penniman, who loves melodrama. Dr. Sloper strongly disapproves, believing him to be after Catherine's money alone. When Catherine and Morris announce their engagement, he checks into Morris's background and finds him to be penniless and parasitic. The doctor forbids his daughter to marry Townsend, and the loyal Catherine cannot bring herself to choose between her father and her fiancé.
Dr. Sloper understands Catherine's strait and pities her a little, but also finds an urbane entertainment in the situation. In an effort to resolve the matter, he announces that he will not leave any money to Catherine if she marries Morris; he then takes her on a twelve month grand tour of Europe. During their months abroad, he mentions Catherine's engagement only twice; once while they are alone together in the Alps, and again on the eve of their return voyage. On both occasions, Catherine holds firm in her desire to marry. After she refuses for a second time to give Morris up, Sloper sarcastically compares her to a sheep fattened up for slaughter. With this, he finally goes too far: Catherine recognises his contempt, withdraws from him, and prepares to bestow all her love and loyalty on Morris.
Upon her return, however, Morris breaks off the relationship when Catherine convinces him that her father will never relent. Catherine, devastated, eventually recovers her equanimity but is never able to forget the injury. Many years pass; Catherine refuses two respectable offers of marriage and grows into a middle aged spinster. Dr. Sloper finally dies and leaves her a sharply reduced income in his will out of fear that Townsend will reappear. In fact, Morris – now fat, balding, bearded and without the same light in his eyes, but still somewhat attractive – does come back to Catherine, but she refuses his advances outright. In the last sentence, James tells us that "Catherine,... picking up her morsel of fancy-work, had seated herself with it again — for life, as it were."
The four principal characters are Catherine, Dr. Sloper, Mrs. Penniman, and Morris Townsend. Dr. Sloper's sister, Mrs. Almond, and Townsend's sister, Mrs. Montgomery, are significant but secondary.
Catherine Sloper, frequently termed "poor Catherine", is Dr. Sloper's only surviving child; her brother died at the age of three, and her mother succumbed from complications of childbirth a week after Catherine was born. Although she is a sweet, dutiful daughter, she is not very pretty or vivacious, and is of only average intelligence. This makes her a great disappointment to her father.
Dr. Austin Sloper, a man in his early fifties, has succeeded brilliantly in his profession and also married a beautiful heiress. He is clever, experienced, perceptive, satirical, and always sure he is right. Catherine both loves and fears him; and for her, defying his disapproval of Morris is a fearful step.
Lavinia Penniman, Sloper's childless, long-widowed sister, provides comic relief derived from her unrealistic romantic scheming, wild hyperbole, and duplicitousness. She takes a keen vicarious interest in Catherine's courtship, and later becomes infatuated with Morris as a wastrel son, whose love affairs are of the greatest interest. She manipulates both Catherine and Morris, trying to shape their relationship into a romantic melodrama in which she plays a leading role; almost invariably, however, she makes matters worse.
Morris Townsend, a tall, handsome man of about thirty, has squandered a small inheritance traveling the world and now lives with his sister. He is a typical fortune-hunter, but James gives him enough intelligence and grace to be credible as an attraction for Catherine. However, the doctor is not fooled and immediately suspects his artificial nature.
Mrs. Almond, Sloper's other sister, is sensible and clever, and has a large, blooming family. Sloper frequently confides in her about Catherine's entanglement with Morris, and his sarcastic view of the situation contrasts with hers, which is more sympathetic.
Mrs. Montgomery is a widow living in genteel poverty with her five children. Dr. Sloper pays a call on her so they can discuss her brother, Morris. With some persuasion, he induces Mrs. Montgomery to admit that Morris takes money from her, returns very little, and makes her suffer.
The novel is told from a third-person omniscient point of view. The narrator often offers his comments directly to the reader.
The novella begins at a distance from the characters, describing the background of the Sloper family. It then recounts in detail the story of Catherine's romance with Morris Townsend. When Morris jilts her, the focus shifts back to a long view. As James puts it: "Our story has hitherto moved with very short steps, but as it approaches its termination it must take a long stride." The final few chapters are taken once more in short steps, ending with the striking vignette of Catherine's refusal of Morris.
The bitterest irony in the story is that Dr. Sloper, a brilliant and successful physician, is exactly right about Morris Townsend, and yet shows complete cruelty to his defenseless and loving daughter. If the doctor was incorrect in his appraisal of the worthless Townsend, he would only be a stock villain. As it is, the doctor's head works perfectly but his heart has grown cold after the death of his beautiful and gifted wife.
Catherine gradually grows throughout the story into right judgment of her situation. As James puts it simply but memorably: "From her point of view the great facts of her career were that Morris Townsend had trifled with her affection, and that her father had broken its spring. Nothing could ever alter these facts; they were always there, like her name, her age, her plain face. Nothing could ever undo the wrong or cure the pain that Morris had inflicted on her, and nothing could ever make her feel towards her father as she felt in her younger years." Catherine will never be brilliant, but she learns to be clear-sighted.
"Everybody likes Washington Square, even the denigrators of Henry James," wrote critic Donald Hall[1], and most other commentators have echoed the sentiment. Although James himself regarded the novel with near contempt, readers have enjoyed its linear narrative technique, its straightforward prose (far removed from the convoluted language of James's later career), and the sharply etched portraits of the four main characters. Even the rusty plot revolving around "the will" has charmed many critics with its old-fashioned simplicity.[2]
Catherine's slow but unmistakable development into independence and wisdom is a notable success for James and has been much appreciated by critics and readers in general.[3]
Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted the novel for a very successful play, The Heiress, originally performed on Broadway in 1947 with Wendy Hiller as Catherine and Basil Rathbone as Dr. Sloper, and revived a number of times since.
The play was adapted for film in 1949, and starred Olivia de Havilland as Catherine, Ralph Richardson as Dr. Sloper, and Montgomery Clift as Morris. William Wyler directed. Both play and movie hewed closely to the novel and cribbed many of the best lines directly from James' dialogue. However, the Goetz version does make a few changes to the story and to the character of Catherine, making her angry enough to refuse to see her father on his deathbed, and clever enough to devise a ruse to avenge herself on Morris.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland made another major movie version in 1997, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney, and Ben Chaplin, with Maggie Smith as Mrs. Penniman. While this film also takes some liberties with the original text, it is in the main a more faithful adaptation.
- ^ Washington Square, Signet Classics 1964, afterword by Donald Hall, p. 181
- ^ The Novels of Henry James by Edward Wagenknecht, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1983, ISBN 0-8044-2959-6, pp. 68-75. Wagenknecht criticizes some aspects of the novel but concedes that it "has certainly attracted more favorable attention" (possibly due, he speculates, to the successful Broadway and film versions). He offers several citations of positive critical views in his footnotes.
- ^ A Henry James Encyclopedia by Robert Gale, Greenwood Press 1989, ISBN 0-313-25846-5, pp. 797-8. Gale writes: "James always downgraded this fine, easily read novel, even though in it he brilliantly characterizes the two Slopers." This is typical of critical praise for James' portrayal of the book's central figures.
