Tag: the golden bowl

“The Golden Bowl” - Henry James

The Golden Bowl - Henry James

“The Golden Bowl”, in short, is about a young, naively innocent woman (Maggie Verver) and her rich father (Adam Verver) getting engaged (almost simultaneously) to two Italians (the prestigious Prince Amerigo and the staggeringly beautiful Charlotte Stant) who happen to have had a love affair (of which both father and daughter, of course, know nothing about), and their mingeled relationships.

Maggie (obvously having an Electra complex) neglects her Prince and spends a lot of time with her father, which leads to the Prince and Charlotte spending more time toghether (in lack of better companions) and finally starting an adulterous affair.

Maggie finally awakes from her naivety by finding out about the affair and starts reclaiming her marriage, by intrigating against Charlotte, seperating the Prince and Charlotte, and persuading her father to return to America (the story takes place in London) with his wife (Charlotte) thus also seperating herself and her father. The prince is quite taken by the new, matured, Maggie, and that’s where the book ends.

I can’t say, that I’ve enjoyed this book as much as I usually enjoy books, it certainly is well written and has an interesting style, which unfortunateyl makes it also quite hard to read. The plot is sometimes unexpected but the scope of the story is way to small for me, the implications seem quite limited, the book doesn’t open new horizons. (At least not for me.)

3/5