num_pages: 320
description: In the aftermath of an acrimonious divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself shuttled back and forth between her father and mother, both of them amoral and monstrously self-involved. After her parents find new spouses—and after the new spouses find themselves drawn to each other, as much for Maisie’s sake as their own—Maisie feels even more misplaced. As she observes the world of adults and their adulteries, and finds herself in the position to decide her own fate, Henry James’s rendering of her child’s-eye view—his depiction of what precisely Maisie knows—draws the reader into this scathing satire of social mores and insightful meditation on familial dependence. This Modern Library Paperback Classic of James’s 1897 masterpiece is set from the definitive 1908 New York Edition.
language: English
title: What Maisie Knew
titlecomplete: What Maisie Knew
characters: Maisie Farange, Miss Overmore, Sir Claude, Mrs. Wix, Ida Farange, Beale Farange
genres: Literature, American, British Literature, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels, Victorian, 19th Century, Fiction, Classic Literature
ratings_count: 6385
places: London, England
publisher: Modern Library