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A review by alinaa
The Golden Bowl by Henry James
4.0
3,75 Stars
I did really enjoy this book, but I have to say that this is my least favourite Henry James so far.
The Golden Bowl is the story of a father and his daughter and their respective marriages. The main theme here is betrayal and how it affects those involved, but the story also explores human relationships in general. We follow Maggie Verver, daughter of a very, very rich American in England, and her husband, a bankrupt Italian Prince. The two other protagonists are Charlotte, a friend of Maggie's, and Fanny Assingham, who could be considered to be part of the Verver family, as she and her husband are extremely close to them.
Now to what I didn't enjoy too much about this very interesting novel. The syntax in here is pretty exhausting and sometimes hard to follow, as James uses many long sentences and very few dialogue. Sometimes there will be five pages or more without anyone speaking and stream of consciousness like explorations of character's thoughts and experiences. Even though I enjoy reading about a situation from different perspectives and the discussion of situations and abstract ideas, this was a bit of a slog and I struggled to stay alert over pages of rambling.
That said, I enjoyed this book very much most of the time. The characters are incredibly real, they are each depicted through several different perspectives and from many different angles, so that one really gets to know them and they all become highly individualised. The betrayal is analysed through the thoughts of at least three characters, sometimes even a fourth, so nothing in this book appears to have just one side. It shows how differently every character experiences a situation and thus the story proves that nothing in life is just black and white. Even adulterers may be pardoned and can not be considered as being purely evil.
This and the very beautiful language rich in imagery still make for a great novel, I just love how James creates such real situations and explores very interesting themes from so many sides! I definitely want to re-read it at some point, and this feels like a story that is going to stick with me, just like The Portrait of a Lady. The good parts of it outweigh the one negative point, its slowness, by far, as one is rewarded for it with a vivid story full of life and extremely fleshed-out characters
I did really enjoy this book, but I have to say that this is my least favourite Henry James so far.
The Golden Bowl is the story of a father and his daughter and their respective marriages. The main theme here is betrayal and how it affects those involved, but the story also explores human relationships in general. We follow Maggie Verver, daughter of a very, very rich American in England, and her husband, a bankrupt Italian Prince. The two other protagonists are Charlotte, a friend of Maggie's, and Fanny Assingham, who could be considered to be part of the Verver family, as she and her husband are extremely close to them.
Now to what I didn't enjoy too much about this very interesting novel. The syntax in here is pretty exhausting and sometimes hard to follow, as James uses many long sentences and very few dialogue. Sometimes there will be five pages or more without anyone speaking and stream of consciousness like explorations of character's thoughts and experiences. Even though I enjoy reading about a situation from different perspectives and the discussion of situations and abstract ideas, this was a bit of a slog and I struggled to stay alert over pages of rambling.
That said, I enjoyed this book very much most of the time. The characters are incredibly real, they are each depicted through several different perspectives and from many different angles, so that one really gets to know them and they all become highly individualised. The betrayal is analysed through the thoughts of at least three characters, sometimes even a fourth, so nothing in this book appears to have just one side. It shows how differently every character experiences a situation and thus the story proves that nothing in life is just black and white. Even adulterers may be pardoned and can not be considered as being purely evil.
This and the very beautiful language rich in imagery still make for a great novel, I just love how James creates such real situations and explores very interesting themes from so many sides! I definitely want to re-read it at some point, and this feels like a story that is going to stick with me, just like The Portrait of a Lady. The good parts of it outweigh the one negative point, its slowness, by far, as one is rewarded for it with a vivid story full of life and extremely fleshed-out characters