Watch and Ward
by Henry James
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Description
The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. While Watch and Ward has long been dismissed as an early apprentice work, it marks an important stage in James's development as a fiction writer, building upon the stories he wrote during the late 1860s and pointing, at the same time, to the works he would write during the ensuing decade and which would show more secure his reputation, including 'Daisy Miller', The American and The Portrait of a Lady. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand the novel's historical, cultural and literary references. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Just finished this, James' first published full-length novel and was absolutely stunned and moved at how good it was. It reminded me a bit of Beethoven's splendid Opus 1 piano trios- so completely formed with so much that was to triumphantly follow in the years to come foreshadowed. Nora Lambert, like Isabel Archer, is a heroine to remember and revisit and be eternally grateful for.
This is Henry James' first novel and his take on the Pygmalion myth. I love James, but this was highly uninteresting, and I struggled through it. It became a chore.
Henry’s first book - and so the first book in my James readathon. He basically disowned it in later life and it’s easy to see why. The subject matter is creepy to modern tastes and it’s paper-thin. Some good bits but really it’s what they used to call ‘juvenilia’.
Completely terrible and creepy. It's so reassuring that even Henry James wasn't always Henry James.
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Author Information
1,061+ Works 87,953 Members
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Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1871
- First words
- ROGER LAWRENCE had come to town for the express purpose of doing a certain act, but as the hour for action approached he felt his ardor rapidly ebbing away.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.4 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English Later 19th Century 1861-1900
- LCC
- PZ3 .J234 — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction in English
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 90
- Popularity
- 357,079
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.11)
- Languages
- English, French, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
- 4
