Description

Book Synopsis

Introduction and Notes by Ian F.A. Bell, Professor of English Literature, University of Keele.

Washington Square marks the culmination of James's apprentice period as a novelist. With sharply focused attention upon just four principal characters, James provides an acute analysis of middle-class manners and behaviour in the New York of the 1870's, a period of great change in the life of the city. This change is explored through the device of setting the novel's action during the 1840s, similarly a period of considerable turbulence as the United States experienced the onset of rapid commercial and industrial expansion.

Through the relationships between Austin Sloper, a celebrated physician, and his sister Lavinia Penniman, his daughter Catherine, and Catherine's suitor, Morris Townsend, James observes the contemporary scene as a site of competing styles and performances where authentic expression cannot be articulated or is subject to suppression.

Washington Square

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    A Paperback / softback by Henry James, Ian F.A. Bell, Dr Keith Carabine

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      Book details

      Publisher Wordsworth Editions Ltd
      Published 5 August 2001
      ISBN-13 9781840224276
      978-1840224276
      ISBN-10 1840224274
      Also in:
      Fiction Classics Books by Henry James

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Introduction and Notes by Ian F.A. Bell, Professor of English Literature, University of Keele.

      Washington Square marks the culmination of James's apprentice period as a novelist. With sharply focused attention upon just four principal characters, James provides an acute analysis of middle-class manners and behaviour in the New York of the 1870's, a period of great change in the life of the city. This change is explored through the device of setting the novel's action during the 1840s, similarly a period of considerable turbulence as the United States experienced the onset of rapid commercial and industrial expansion.

      Through the relationships between Austin Sloper, a celebrated physician, and his sister Lavinia Penniman, his daughter Catherine, and Catherine's suitor, Morris Townsend, James observes the contemporary scene as a site of competing styles and performances where authentic expression cannot be articulated or is subject to suppression.

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