The Spoils of Poynton (1896)

by Henry James

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velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |

I love this novel. Henry James is a genius at identifying some of the worst aspects of human behaviour. Especially when he looks at the lives of the rich and frivolous.

Mrs. Gereth is a recent widow. Because of custom, she must move out of her home to make way for the new owners, her son and his wife to be. The only problem is that the home, Poynton is a masterpiece. In fact, Poynton is her masterpiece and she is reluctant to be parted from her art.

What ensues is a battle of wits between the witless Owen, his fiancee Mona Bridgestock, his mother and her friend Fleda Vetch. (

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MsNikki | Apr 6, 2012 |

I found this disappointing, in the same way as I have been disappointed by many of the Henry James novels that I've read recently. I couldn't bring myself to care particularly about any of the characters, which made it tough going. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who wasn't already a Henry James fan. (

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cazfrancis | May 8, 2011 |

Ezra Pound famously dismissed this book as "a good deal of needless fuss" and complained at some length about James's apparent obsession with furniture. He does have a point, but on the other hand, furniture is precisely the sort of thing real people do make needless fuss about, in the real world. It is easy enough to imagine someone like Mrs Gereth ruining her life and those of the people around her over something far more trivial than the contents of a great house like Poynton. This is actually one of the shorter and more approachable James novels: once one accepts the premise of the furniture being important, the amount of analysis is not altogether out of proportion to the circumstances, and the plot moves along quite briskly. (

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thorold | Jul 21, 2009 |

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Is contained in

Henry James: Novels 1896-1899: The Other House / The Spoils of Poynton / What Maisie Knew / The Awkward Age (Library of by Henry James

Complete Works of Henry James (Illustrated) by Henry James

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Canonical title

The Spoils of Poynton

Original title

The old things

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Related movies

The Spoils of Poynton (1970 ∙ IMDb)

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Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Mrs Gereth had said she would go with the rest to church, but suddenly it seemed to her she shouldn't be able to wait even till church-time for relief: breakfast was at Waterbath a punctual meal and she had still nearly an hour on her hands.

Quotations

Things" were of course the sum of the world; only, for Mrs. Gereth, the sum of the world was rare French furniture and oriental china. She could at a stretch imagine people's not "having", but she couldn't imagine their not wanting and not missing.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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Oxford World's Classics

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The Bodley Head Henry James (Volume IV)

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0140432884, Paperback)

Mrs Gereth is convinced that Fleda Vetch would make the perfect daughter-in-law. Only the dreamy, highly-strung young woman can genuinely appreciate, and perhaps eventually share, Mrs Gereth's passion for her 'things' - the antique treasures she has amassed at Poynton Park in the south of England. Owen Gereth, however, has inconveniently become engaged to the uncultured Mona Brigstock. As a dramatic family quarrel unfolds, the hesitating Fleda is drawn in, yet she remains reluctant to captivate Owen, who seems as attracted to her as she is to him. Is she motivated by scruple or fear? In "The Spoils of Poynton (1897)", Henry James created a work of exquisite ambiguity in his depiction of three women fighting for the allegiance of one weak-willed man.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:35:20 -0500)

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▾Library descriptions

Mrs Gareth, widowed chatelaine of Poynton, is fighting to keep her house with its priceless objets d'art from her son Owen and his lovely, utterly philistine fiance?�e. When she discovers that her young friend and sympathizer Fleda Vetch is secretly in love with Owen, she thrusts her into the battle-line.… (more)