Washington Square (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

One of Henry James’s most engaging and emotionally affecting novels, Washington Square tells the story of Catherine Sloper, a plain and unassuming young woman living with her wealthy father, Dr. Austin Sloper, in New York City in the 1840s. She meets and falls in love with Morris Townsend, a charming but penniless suitor. Her father strongly disapproves of the match, believing Morris to be a fortune hunter only interested in Catherine’s inheritance. Catherine resists her father, and a battle of will ensues, which James describes with brilliant wit, satiric skill, and psychological insight. Washington Square is a profound and deeply moving novel about romantic love, family duty, and a young woman’s painful journey to self-realization. This Warbler Classics edition includes a new introduction and notes by William E. Cain as well as a detailed biographical timeline and suggestions for further reading.Henry James (1843–1916) was born in New York City and educated there and in London, Paris, and Geneva. Cosmopolitan and multilingual, he spent most of his life and literary career in Europe. He wrote twenty-two novels, one hundred and twelve short stories, twelve plays, and more than two hundred essays and reviews as well as travel books and autobiographies. Considered among the greatest authors in world literature, his novels include The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl.William E. Cain is the Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English at Wellesley College. He is the editor of American Literature, a two-volume anthology of American literature; the author of American Literary Criticism, 1900–1945; and a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Criticism and Theory.“Washington Square is a pronounced favorite, both with James connoisseurs...and the wider public.” —The New Yorker