What Maisie Knew

by Henry James, Christopher Ricks (Introduction)

Overview

In the aftermath of an acrimonious divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself shuttled back and forth between her father and mother, both of them amoral and monstrously self-involved. After her parents find new spouses—and after the new spouses find themselves drawn to each other, as much for Maisie’s sake as their own—Maisie feels even more misplaced. As she observes the world of adults and their adulteries, and finds herself in the position to decide her own fate, Henry James’s rendering of her child’s-eye view—his depiction of what precisely Maisie knows—draws the reader into this scathing satire of social mores and insightful meditation on familial dependence. This Modern Library Paperback Classic of James’s 1897 masterpiece is set from the definitive 1908 New York Edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141441375
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/30/2010
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	694,760
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

HENRY JAMES (1843–1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. He spent his early life in America and studied in Geneva, London and Paris during his adolescence to gain the worldly experience so prized by his father. He lived in Newport, went briefly to Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began to contribute both criticism and tales to magazines.

In 1869, and then in 1872–74, he paid visits to Europe and began his first novel, Roderick Hudson. Late in 1875 he settled in Paris, where he met Turgenev, Flaubert, and Zola, and wrote The American (1877). In December 1876 he moved to London, where two years later he achieved international fame with Daisy Miller. Other famous works include Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Princess Casamassima(1886), The Aspern Papers (1888), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and three large novels of the new century,The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). In 1905 he revisited the United States and wrote The American Scene (1907).

During his career he also wrote many works of criticism and travel. Although old and ailing, he threw himself into war work in 1914, and in 1915, a few months before his death, he became a British subject. In 1916 King George V conferred the Order of Merit on him. He died in London in February 1916.

CHRISTOPHER RICKS is professor of humanities at Boston University and most recently author of Dylan’s Visions of Sin.

Date of Birth:

April 15, 1843

Date of Death:

February 28, 1916

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Attended school in France and Switzerland; Harvard Law School, 1862-63

Read an Excerpt

The litigation had seemed interminable and had in fact been complicated; but by the decision on the appeal the judgement of the divorce-court was confirmed as to the assignment of the child. The father, who, though bespattered from head to foot, had made good his case, was, in pursuance of this triumph, appointed to keep her: it was not so much that the mother’s character had been more absolutely damaged as that the brilliancy of a lady’s complexion (and this lady’s, in court, was immensely remarked) might be more regarded as showing the spots. Attached, however, to the second pronouncement was a condition that detracted, for Beale Farange, from its sweetness—an order that he should refund to his late wife the twenty-six hundred pounds put down by her, as it was called, some three years before, in the interest of the child’s maintenance and precisely on a proved understanding that he would take no proceedings: a sum of which he had had the administration and of which he could render not the least account. The obligation thus attributed to her adversary was no small balm to Ida’s resentment; it drew a part of the sting from her defeat and compelled Mr. Farange perceptibly to lower his crest. He was unable to produce the money or to raise it in any way; so that after a squabble scarcely less public and scarcely more decent than the original shock of battle his only issue from his predicament was a compromise proposed by his legal advisers and finally accepted by hers.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "What Maisie Knew"
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Copyright © 2010 Henry James.
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Table of Contents

What Maisie Knew Introduction by Paul Theroux
A Note on the Text
Preface to the New York Edition

What Maisie Knew

Notes

Reading Group Guide

1. Why do you think Henry James chose to title this novel What Maisie Knew? Discuss the implications of this title.

2. Consider the structure of the novel. Critics have said that is has an almost theatrical structure; some have even compared it to a stately dance. Discuss how certain scenes and characters seem to counterbalance one another.

3. Examine the ways James tackles the issue of gender in this novel. Can you see any trends in the portrayal of the males characters' development versus the females’ development? In particular, discuss the characters of Mrs. Wix, Ida Farange, Beale Farange, Sir Claude, and the former Miss Overmore.

4. Although the novel is told primarily through Maisie’s eyes, there are places in which James inserts his voice into the text. Find some of these examples and consider his reasons for doing so.

5. What role does morality play in the novel? What larger message does James seem to be trying to convey to his reader?

6. Practically nothing is kept from Maisie — even the sexual perusings of her parents and their significant others. The novel is full of sexual references and symbols. Does all the mentioning of and alluding to sex cause it to be seen as a vice in this novel? Are there any examples of sex portrayed positively?

7. In Diane Johnson’s introduction to the novel she discusses why James chose to have Maisie choose Mrs. Wix as the person with whom to live. Why do you think James chose to have the novel end this way? Does it make for a less happy ending? What might have been some of the other alternatives and their outcomes?

8.“One would think you were about sixty. . . ” Sir Claude says to Maisie at the end of the novel. Although most critics agree that the book spans just a couple years, how has Maisie progressed toward adulthood? What does being an adult ultimately mean in this novel?

Editorial Reviews

Reading Henry James is like putting a new faculty to the test. This is the true morality.”—Anita Brookner

From the Publisher

Reading Henry James is like putting a new faculty to the test. This is the true morality.”

Booker Prize–winning novelist Anita Brookner

Maisie embodies everything that James excelled at in fiction.”

Paul Theroux

The novel’s perspective faithfully aligns itself to Maisie’s thoughts, showing, on the one hand, the ironic comedy of the interactions of the self-involved adults and, on the other, restless, hyperalert Maisie’s shrewd assessment of those interactions…James’ old-fashioned commitment to the pursuit of verisimilitude meets with his growing interest in the area of consciousness to create a unique character in Maisie.”

Wall Street Journal

Maisie's parents, whose fecklessness challenges credulity, have divorced each other, then each abandoned their second spouses, then quit the stage entirely, leaving Maisie with two stepparents and a nanny in conflict, as all three of them seem desperately to want to keep and raise the orphan. Maisie, who has had virtually no education and spent almost no time with other children, is the narrator's great challenge, written as blankly innocent but with adult speech patterns and a hyper-attentive shrewdness. Lorna Raver makes her human. Her adults are even better, vivid and self-revealing, and outmaneuvered by Maisie. Raver's English accents are not perfect, but this distracts little from the pleasure of her performance, which is filled with intelligent empathy and human warmth for these unlikely characters. B.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2012 - AudioFile