Washington Square

Catherine Sloper is young—not clever, not quick, not ugly—and rich. Into her life in New York City’s fashionable Washington Square comes Morris Townsend—“the most beautiful young man in the world.” Her aunt Lavinia is impressed but Dr. Sloper, Catherine’s father, is not. Is Morris in love with Catherine, or merely after her money? In only two hundred pages, Henry James creates a layered and intensive look at a young woman torn between love and duty, romance and reality, and obedience and self-reliance. How will she choose?

This short novel has been adapted for both stage and film as “The Heiress” (playing Catherine Sloper won Olivia de Havilland an Academy Award and Cherry Jones a Tony), and a second film adaptation starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney, and Dame Maggie Smith.

This two-week Delve will serve as an excellent introduction to those who wish to dive into Henry James’s large body of fiction, and clears the way for exploration of his later great works (The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Turn of the Screw, among many others).

Text: Washington Square by Henry James (Penguin Classics, ed. Martha Banta. ISBN 978-0-141-44136-8)

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