Washington Square [Paperback]

A Thing of Beauty isn't always a joy forever. Henry James's short novel, Washington Square, is a thing of beauty, a nearly perfect 'historical' novel as shapely as a Grecian Urn, which has been the joy of English Department scholars, film makers, and more than a few readers ever since its publication in 1890. But James detested it and attempted to revise it for a later edition, only to conclude that the task was hopeless. To a certain degree, 'beauty' is its subject. The beautiful figures in the novel -- beautiful in any sense, physical or metaphysical -- turn out to be loathsomely selfish, moral failures -- while the least beautiful figure muddles and suffers through to a degree of decency and moral insight. Likewise, the fashionable heart of Manhattan in 1840, the beauty spot called Washington Square, is exposed as emblematic of a crass, greedy, egotistical society of climbers and grabbers.

Dr. Sloper, whose mansion on Washington Square is the setting for most chapters of the novel, is a popular and successful society doctor, made wealthy by his marriage to a New York belle and by his energetic practice. He's a man of intelligence and wit, with a penchant for irony and a well-concealed fund of narcissism. His beautiful wife dies young, leaving him a daughter who is neither beautiful nor intelligent. Catherine, the daughter, is pudgy, dull, and docile. Despite being the heiress of a considerable fortune, she reaches her early twenties without attracting a suitor. Then a handsome, clever, stylish stranger, Morris Townsend, comes courting with suspicious alacrity. The Doctor's widowed sister, a resident in the Washington square mansion, fancies herself a romantic and a matchmaker. The Doctor is offended at the prospect that his daughter, awkward embarrassment that she is to his self-esteem, should fall prey to a mercenary wastrel who would thereby carry off the fruits of his professional labors. He forcefully denounces the courtship and threatens 'disinheritance.'

And that's the polished formula for a Victorian novel of manners-and-marriage, isn't it? A novel in the style of Jane Austen or the Brontes, told by an omniscient third-person narrator who often speaks out of the frame directly to the reader! An 'old-fashioned' novel, in short, for Henry james to have written in 1890, especially when everyone knew that he despised the works of Austen! But Henry James was a perverse critter in his literary motives. Washington Square is also a 'historical' novel, set in New York in the 1840s, the very decade of the greatest popularity of Austen-like novels of romance. It's worth noting that James was born in New York City in 1843, making this novel effectively a portrayal of the society of his parents' generation. Nostalgia? Ha! You'll need to read it and look hard for any trace of that!

So it's my thesis - my guess - that James intended Washington Square as a moral rebuttal to the sloppy frippery and psychological unreality of his feminine novelist predecessors. I seldom read literary criticism; I got too much of that in college. If any critic has already stated this same thesis, I'm unaware of it and I can't be accused of plagiarism. But James was wrong to scorn his own brilliance in this novel. The four principal characters -- father, daughter, suitor, meddlesome aunt -- are staggeringly "real" and fully realized psychological portrayals. No one has ever made better reading out of four such unattractive faulty human beings.

This is a short novel about stubborn people. Two men fight about a woman: her father wants her not to marry that windbag. That windbag wants to challenge the father about his plan to disinherit his daughter in the case of marriage. We can easily see that the girl might end up as collateral damage. It does not continue in such a clear cut way though.

`His private opinion of the more difficult sex was not exalted'. This is what Henry James says about Dr. Sloper, successful medical doctor catering to the better classes in NY in the early to mid 19th century. The man is a widower and stuck with a less than perfect daughter than he thought he had a right to expect, considering his brilliant and much missed wife. To take care of the girl he has accepted the presence of an unloved and mildly despised sister, a pastor's widow. The man has accepted his mediocre female relatives with sarcastic stoicism. In truth, he behaves like a real b.....d. He treats his daughter like a lab rat. There is more amused curiosity and sarcasm than affection.

The daughter can be considered the main character in the novel. She is, unfortunately, just an ordinary decent young woman. Not a beauty, not smart, not highly educated, not brave, just a normal human being. James is tender but condescending with Catherine. He pokes mild fun at her naïve ways. She is the kind of person that will get taken advantage of: too shy to be self-assured, too modest to have a realistic assessment of her own standing in the world. She seems easy prey to a skillful hunter. A young man with keen eyes sees the worth that might be coming to this wallflower and courts her.
Father disapproves. Catherine is torn between her adoration and respect for her father and the unexpected experience to feel loved by an attractive man. She wants her suitor, but she lacks the guts to stand up to her father. As readers we are equally stuck: with all his impossible behavior, the father just seems to be right in his opinion of the other man, if not in his treatment of his daughter.

I have been asked where to start with James. I am just a beginner myself, but I feel confident in saying that among the novels that I have read so far, this one is just fine for the purpose of getting familiar with James. It is reasonably short at 200 pages. It is entertaining and accessible. There is nothing of the complicated language of some later works. The narrative is based on an all-knowing voice from the off, which reports and comments. Not exactly modern writing, but alive and sharp and observant.
One of the other reviews here called it `chick lit', and that is maybe not a bad idea. We take the position of poor abused Catherine: looked down upon by an arrogant but adored father, abused by an attractive gold digger. Nobody to hold on to for support but a silly meddlesome aunt with romantic notions. While James' overall position to women bears analysis, in this case his sympathies are clearly placed. Chick lit, yes, we can say that.
The novel also shows a typical behavior of James as a novelist: he is a puppeteer, he holds all the strings and his 4 main characters (father, daughter, aunt, suitor) are totally in his power and subject to his wisecracks.

For anyone interested in beginning to read Henry James, Washington Square might be the book to start with. James is notorious for being difficult to read; however, this story about Catherine Sloper still rings true today, as she clashes with her domineering father over his disapproval of the young man with whom she has fallen in love. Dr. Sloper, who reminds Catherine how plain and dull she is, suspects the handsome Townsend of being a gold digger, interested only in Catherine's rich inheritance. Catherine's chief conflict is her fight for her right to fall in love with a man her father completely mistrusts, while trying to be an obedient daughter, one of the first things that a Victorian girl learned in an age when women had few rights and little sense of their own independence. An interfering aunt complicates Catherine and Morris's life and helps to set the stage for further problems.

Three operas were based on the book, a stage version called The Heiress was produced, and a film version based on the play starred Olivia DeHavilland and Montgomery Clift. A later film version, called Washington Square, starred Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ben Chaplin, and Albert Finnery, put a different spin on James's story.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars