Washington Square (1880)

I wont deny that Washington Square is a great literary work,but I dont like the book because of its message.

Plain and ordinary women can never find true love (unless if theyre heiresses then they can buy love)

I know, I know its set in the 1850s and they had different way of seeing things back then.

But I still cant like it.
( )

Sappy AF. I lived on Washington Sq in the early 90s, so I thought I'd find the setting engaging, but it's almost beside the point. ( )

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I saw Oliva de Haviland's Catherine first. And her fantastic performance has tinted every other telling of the story for me. ( )

This is the first Henry James work I've read, a good introduction, and I am glad I have seen it. The text is clearly written, very cinematic in the way it describes each characters thoughts and words, but written in the nineteenth- century American sort of what now seems over-formal and stilted style. I've read more from his brother William James, the philosopher, and see how they are both talented writers. The first sentence of chapter one is 55 words long, but still clear. The work was written as a serial, published in parts in a magazine, but doesn't have the feel that it was paid for by the word, maybe since James already had money and could write for himself without worrying about income.
The story is well told. I care for the characters.
This kindle edition (Cambridge World Classics) is 99 cents, does have some critical contents, which are not at all curent, which explains the low price. There is no x-ray feature and there are location numbers in place of page numbers. But I can search the book and use the kindle dictionary, making it a useful read. ( )

What can you say about Henry James? I found this to be the most accessible of his novels that I've read. But like Portrait of a Lady, I came to despise many of the characters and to wish that others would catch the clue bus. The sense of slow, inexorable, relentlessly impending doom was both compelling and frustrating, as it was in Portrait of a Lady. You want to shake James's protagonists or slap them silly or yell at them "Don't fall for that S.O.B.!" the same way that you want to yell "Don't go in the basement!" to the clueless victim in a horror film. ( )