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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
I read this for a class on American Collectors and Collecting. The conversation we had about it was quite fascinating, but the experience of reading the book was SO incredibly dull. Would’ve been better at 100 pages.
slow-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Almost unreadably dull, saved only by its very short page length and somewhat interesting premise. One of those “why-do-people-like-this” reads.
The ending is outstanding but this felt like a short form experiment towards the later novels.
This book probably represents James at his most annoying. Looking at it generously, there are 5 characters (though I think one of them does not actually make an appearance). Their world is cramped and claustrophobic. Their concerns, for the most part, seem to be petty. This is debatable, because everything with James at this point in his writing, seems to be pointing elsewhere - to something ineffable. The only problem is that things wouldn't seem so profound, mysterious, and ineffable, if only someone would just come out and say what they meant. For James, that becomes more and more difficult with his characters. They stubbornly, and endlessly, talk about the matter that concerns them most. But for the most part, they are so concerned with niceties and appearances that they never once come to the point. And this refusal to say what they mean leads to bad consequences for just about everyone involved. I won't say it leads to tragedy, because here I didn't think any of the characters merited a tragic end. They were all fairly base to begin with, I didn't feel bad when they got taken down.
The plot, like most of later James, is very simple. It could easily have been molded into a wonderful 20-30 page short story. Add the false starts, the hesitations, the circling back on things that were sort of decided but not really, and it balloons into a much bigger work. And I realize that all this sounds like I didn't like the book. But I did. I enjoy later James, even though I sometimes find it almost endlessly frustrating. I did not like this book as much as either The Wings of the Dove or The Golden Bowl. Here, it feels like he has just found a new approach to his writing and it doesn't sit all that well with the material he's presenting.
There was a philosopher at Cambridge in the early 1900s named G.E. Moore. He was vastly admired by the members of the Bloomsbury circle. They all thought him extremely profound. This, despite the fact that he rarely talked at any of their parties. The members of the circle took his reticence for deep thinking. But when someone asked him about this, he replied, "Perhaps its because I have nothing to say." I sometimes feel that way about the characters in these James books. They talk and talk at a subject or around a subject, but in the end I'm left wondering whether any of them have anything to say at all. All of their fine distinctions seem to be backed up by an engulfing emptiness. But unlike Moore, they don't stay quiet. Sometimes I'm glad that they don't. In this book, I wasn't quite so sure.
The plot, like most of later James, is very simple. It could easily have been molded into a wonderful 20-30 page short story. Add the false starts, the hesitations, the circling back on things that were sort of decided but not really, and it balloons into a much bigger work. And I realize that all this sounds like I didn't like the book. But I did. I enjoy later James, even though I sometimes find it almost endlessly frustrating. I did not like this book as much as either The Wings of the Dove or The Golden Bowl. Here, it feels like he has just found a new approach to his writing and it doesn't sit all that well with the material he's presenting.
There was a philosopher at Cambridge in the early 1900s named G.E. Moore. He was vastly admired by the members of the Bloomsbury circle. They all thought him extremely profound. This, despite the fact that he rarely talked at any of their parties. The members of the circle took his reticence for deep thinking. But when someone asked him about this, he replied, "Perhaps its because I have nothing to say." I sometimes feel that way about the characters in these James books. They talk and talk at a subject or around a subject, but in the end I'm left wondering whether any of them have anything to say at all. All of their fine distinctions seem to be backed up by an engulfing emptiness. But unlike Moore, they don't stay quiet. Sometimes I'm glad that they don't. In this book, I wasn't quite so sure.
Skipped major sections of the book after the first third because I just could see where the story was going. A lot of the descriptions felt like filler and there was not real depth to the story. It had a decent enough plot that made me finish the book but I could not have read every single page.
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
'Did you really believe that? That I would finish my 2022 reading year without picking up another novel by one of my all-time favorite writers?'
That was, more or less, what I said to a friend of mine when he noticed it had been a while since the last time I read a novel by Henry James. Perhaps it is because I usually talk a lot about his oeuvre that it seems kind of odd when I'm not reading anything by him. I don't know. The point is that I really wanted to read some of his stuff again, something short and minor, so to speak, before the end of the year. That was the moment when I made up my mind to pick up <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b>.
<b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> is, in my view, a weird yet fascinating book, actually the weirdest one I have read by Henry James so far. Perhaps 'weird' is too much to describe this story, however, I truly believe you have to love both his narrative and his stories, and be really committed to reading them from cover to cover, in order for you to enjoy this particular one. This is by no means a novel to kick off your James journey with, and let me explain why, in spite of its length, this book was harder to read than, let's say, <b>The Wings of the Dove</b> or <b>The Golden Bowl</b>.
When it comes to Henry James' books, the thing is to remember that the older the author got—will this also have something to do with the fact that he used to dictate his stories rather than write them by himself when he was almost 60?—the more difficult and more confusing his novels became. Books such as <b>The Ambassadors</b> and <b>The Golden Bowl</b> are usually more challenging because of their prose that is quite ambiguous, verbose, and at times confusing, whereas stories like <b>Washington Square</b> and <b>The Aspern Papers</b> are mostly straightforward and easy to follow (in terms of Henry James' style of writing, of course). So, eventually everything comes down to an important question: which group does <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> belong to? And here you have the main problem you can find while reading this novel: it belongs either to the first group, to the second group, or to both groups.
The fact that <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> is like a combination of both worlds, so to speak, shouldn't be an issue beforehand, however, the plot is not really engaging, nor is it interesting enough for you to keep reading—don't get me wrong, it was riveting for me indeed, though, objectively speaking, I don't think it would be like that for everyone—and the prose is not even easy to read to make your reading experience better. Therefore, <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> becomes a story that fails to be both a challenging, yet rewarding reading experience, and an entertaining, straight-to-the-point story. That being said, I must accept my reality: I mostly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end, but maybe because I'm a big fan of James' stories, and especially a bigger fan of his final novels—I believe I'm going to enjoy every single piece of literature written by this man.
As for the plot, it is simple yet boundless, since it is open to a number of interpretations by the end of the story: a mother wants to preserve their memories by keeping some objects that, from the moment his son gets married on, will be taken away from her (since Poynton—her house—along with her treasures will be owned only by his son and his future wife). She doesn't like her future daughter-in-law either, and as a matter of fact, she wants his son to get married to Fleda Vetch, our real protagonist who is a gentle, kind woman and a good friend of the mother; therefore, she (the mother) will do everything in her power to help Fleda end up being together with her son—the question is, will she make it happen?
I haven't explain yet why <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> was harder to read than, for instance, <b>The Golden Bowl</b> and less enjoyable than <b>Washington Square</b>, have I? Well, simply because its narrative is not as impressive as the narrative of <b>The Golden Bowl</b>, and its plot is not as straightforward as <b>Washington Square</b>'s plot. It was not harder to read because of its difficulty, but because it is tricky to enjoy the journey, and even though the destiny—the ending—was so good and quite symbolic, the things that happened in between were not that memorable. That said, again, you know me—do you?—Henry James has become, throughout the past two years, an all-time favorite of mine and I will always be biased towards him as a writer. If I recommend you read this book? Yes, as long as you love him too (as an author, I mean).
<b>“He clasped her, and she gave herself – she poured out her tears on his breast. Something prisoned and pent throbbed and gushed; something deep and sweet surged up – something that came from far within and far off, that had begun with the sight of him in his indifference and had never had rest since then."</b>
That was, more or less, what I said to a friend of mine when he noticed it had been a while since the last time I read a novel by Henry James. Perhaps it is because I usually talk a lot about his oeuvre that it seems kind of odd when I'm not reading anything by him. I don't know. The point is that I really wanted to read some of his stuff again, something short and minor, so to speak, before the end of the year. That was the moment when I made up my mind to pick up <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b>.
<b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> is, in my view, a weird yet fascinating book, actually the weirdest one I have read by Henry James so far. Perhaps 'weird' is too much to describe this story, however, I truly believe you have to love both his narrative and his stories, and be really committed to reading them from cover to cover, in order for you to enjoy this particular one. This is by no means a novel to kick off your James journey with, and let me explain why, in spite of its length, this book was harder to read than, let's say, <b>The Wings of the Dove</b> or <b>The Golden Bowl</b>.
When it comes to Henry James' books, the thing is to remember that the older the author got—will this also have something to do with the fact that he used to dictate his stories rather than write them by himself when he was almost 60?—the more difficult and more confusing his novels became. Books such as <b>The Ambassadors</b> and <b>The Golden Bowl</b> are usually more challenging because of their prose that is quite ambiguous, verbose, and at times confusing, whereas stories like <b>Washington Square</b> and <b>The Aspern Papers</b> are mostly straightforward and easy to follow (in terms of Henry James' style of writing, of course). So, eventually everything comes down to an important question: which group does <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> belong to? And here you have the main problem you can find while reading this novel: it belongs either to the first group, to the second group, or to both groups.
The fact that <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> is like a combination of both worlds, so to speak, shouldn't be an issue beforehand, however, the plot is not really engaging, nor is it interesting enough for you to keep reading—don't get me wrong, it was riveting for me indeed, though, objectively speaking, I don't think it would be like that for everyone—and the prose is not even easy to read to make your reading experience better. Therefore, <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> becomes a story that fails to be both a challenging, yet rewarding reading experience, and an entertaining, straight-to-the-point story. That being said, I must accept my reality: I mostly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end, but maybe because I'm a big fan of James' stories, and especially a bigger fan of his final novels—I believe I'm going to enjoy every single piece of literature written by this man.
As for the plot, it is simple yet boundless, since it is open to a number of interpretations by the end of the story: a mother wants to preserve their memories by keeping some objects that, from the moment his son gets married on, will be taken away from her (since Poynton—her house—along with her treasures will be owned only by his son and his future wife). She doesn't like her future daughter-in-law either, and as a matter of fact, she wants his son to get married to Fleda Vetch, our real protagonist who is a gentle, kind woman and a good friend of the mother; therefore, she (the mother) will do everything in her power to help Fleda end up being together with her son—the question is, will she make it happen?
I haven't explain yet why <b>The Spoils of Poynton</b> was harder to read than, for instance, <b>The Golden Bowl</b> and less enjoyable than <b>Washington Square</b>, have I? Well, simply because its narrative is not as impressive as the narrative of <b>The Golden Bowl</b>, and its plot is not as straightforward as <b>Washington Square</b>'s plot. It was not harder to read because of its difficulty, but because it is tricky to enjoy the journey, and even though the destiny—the ending—was so good and quite symbolic, the things that happened in between were not that memorable. That said, again, you know me—do you?—Henry James has become, throughout the past two years, an all-time favorite of mine and I will always be biased towards him as a writer. If I recommend you read this book? Yes, as long as you love him too (as an author, I mean).
<b>“He clasped her, and she gave herself – she poured out her tears on his breast. Something prisoned and pent throbbed and gushed; something deep and sweet surged up – something that came from far within and far off, that had begun with the sight of him in his indifference and had never had rest since then."</b>
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes