Penguin Classics The Golden Bowl [Paperback]

Henry James (1843-1916)was born into a wealthy family in New York City. His father was a philosopher; his brother William a teacher at Harvard and his sister Alice a noted diarist. Henry James pioneered the international novel in which innocent Americans have to deal with evil and the mores and complexities of life in Europe.
The Golden Bowl was published in 1904 and is the last of the three famous novels in HJ's late period. The other two novels are "The Wings of a Dove" and The Ambassadors." All of these novels are difficult reading.
The Golden Bowl tells the long story of Adam Verver a fabulously wealthy widower from American City who is living in London. His daughter Maggie weds Prince Amerigo from Rome while Adam weds Maggie's schoolgirl acquaintance the fetching Charlotte Stant. In complex prose and psychological exploration James looks at this quartet's relationship with microscopic (and to some readers boring, prolix and dull scrutiny.) Mrs. Assingham is the friend of the characters who makes comments on what is going on in their unusual familial situation. She knew that Amerigo and Charlotte were lovers prior to their respective marriages to father Adam and daughter Maggie. Sometimes it seems that Maggie has almost an incestuous relationship with her indulgent father.
In the biblical book of Ecclesiastes the golden bowl is symbolic of life. In this late Victorian novel it stands for life and also the marriage of Maggie and Amerigo. The bowl has a crack in it symbolizing their less than perfect union. Maggie learns of the affair between Charlotte and Amerigo through intricate psychological detective work, the discovery of the golden bowl in a London antique shop and conversation with Mrs. Assingham. Therefore, the novel is a bildungsroman in which we are able to trace the maturation of Maggie from a callow girl to a responsible human being. As the novel ends she and Amerigo and their child remain in England while Adam and Charlotte leave for America.
This novel is not for a novice to James or adult fiction. His sentences are long and he spends a great deal of time exploring the emotions within the minds of Amerigo, Mrs. Assingham and Maggie. Very little action occurs
other than in the fertile imagination of the characters (especially Maggie). The Golden Bowl is one of the greatest novels ever written and is the best novel authored by Henry James. It demands to be read slowly with full concentration and can be better understood through rereading and paying attention to the critical comments on the work. Henry James is not everyone's cup of tea but he is worthy of study and appreciation for his mastery of the art of fiction.

Absolutely superb, stimulating, satisfying, rewarding masterpiece, one of Henry James' best, and he is probably my favorite author. Actually, I disagree with the review which pronounces this as his best novel--I think that honor would go to "The Ambassadors," which I re-read every few years and have, since I first came upon it in college. I so much love the manner in which he writes, the simple subject matter which he transforms into gripping drama, the lengthy, almost convoluted sentences that force one to remember, to pay attention, to think. All of James' novels, including this one, seem to be written to be re-read again and again. There are simply too many layers, too many subtleties, there is too much psychological action, real human emotion and interaction to absorb in a single read through. I would recommend "The Golden Bowl" to anyone, though those who haven't read a Henry James novel before might start with "Portrait of a Lady," "The American," "Daisy Miller," or something less stylistically complex. I suspect that as one immerses himself in the writings of Henry James, there just won't be enough of his writings to satisfy the whetted appetite for his works.

While I have not read every novel there is to read, I can say that I have not read anything like this - not even within the Jamesian canon. It is difficult to summarize The Golden Bowl, because if I were simply to reveal the plot to you, it would seem hardly to merit 600 of James's densest pages. What is it? That is the question, and in fact, it is a novel about questions - watching people ask questions. What is the golden bowl? Does it mean nothing? Anything? Can I MAKE something or someone have a particular "value" - a market "price?" How do I ascertain someone else's knowledge without being explicit? What is worth sacrificing: a lover, a father, a friend? To quote from the novel, "knowledge, knowledge was a fascination as well as a fear." Such is the attitude of the reader as he or she approaches the text.
I had the good fortune to read this novel with the Penguin editor, whose enthusiasm for Maggie Verver and Colonel Bob was infectious; The Golden Bowl has among the smallest cast of characters of any James novel, and it is easy to feel deeply connected to a given figure in a given reading. Like "The Ambassadors," "The Golden Bowl" is a novel about growing up. You will also grow up as a reader and possibly as a person if you wrestle hard enough with this text. And it is quite a wrestle: James's writing here is extremely oblique, and there are passages that are remarkably obscure. (The section on Adam Verver especially comes to mind; I read that three or four times and there are few sentences that are a tad regrettable in their sinuosity.) If you find yourself struggling, you're not alone. But the struggle is worth it. All the characters in this novel struggle with the truth, as does, it seems, Henry James.

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