The Golden Bowl, Henry James' last completed novel, is a story of the union of European class and American money. American millionaire and widower Adam Verver lives with his daughter Maggie in Europe, where they spend their time collecting objet d'art and enjoying each other's company. Maggie becomes engaged to the aristocratic but penniless Amerigo, ignorant of the fact that Amerigo had previously had an affair with her best friend Charlotte. Through the continuing machinations of Fanny Assingham, Maggie's father marries Charlotte, and the stage is set for the ensuing drama to unfold. With Maggie and her father spending a great deal of time together after both are married, it is not long before the spouses have rekindled their previous affair. It is the ugliness of deceit that wounds more than the adultery itself, and as the plot proceeds, we watch as the various characters gradually suspect, then become convinced of the truth…
The Toby Edition includes a chronology and introduction by Alide Cagidemetrio, professor of American Studies at the University of Venice. Her publications include Fictions of the Past: Hawthorne & Melville and essays on Cooper, James, Stein, Nabokov, Djuna Barnes. She is currently working on a book on the young girls of American fiction.
| |
|
