A Work in Progress

One Bagful of Books

 

Today was my library's quarterly booksale.  Like everything else, the prices of their books have gone up.  I allowed myself one bag full of books--if it didn't fit, I didn't buy it.  The cost of my books has doubled over the cost a year ago--how's that for inflation!  Still, it was considerably cheaper than had I bought them new at the bookstore (and nearly all the books are in very good, if not pristine, condition).  The last booksale was a bit of a disappointment, but I was impressed by the selection today.  Are you curious what I found?

   

It's been ages since I found any Viragos.  I found not just one but four!

The Perpetual Curate (Chronicles of Carlingford), Mrs. Oliphant

The Ante-Room, Kate O'Brien

The Three Miss Kings, Ada Cambridge

The Fly on the Wheel, Katherine Cecil Thurston

 

A whole stack of good mysteries.

Maigret on the Boulevard, Inspector Cadaver, and My Friend Maigret, all by Georges Simenon

Whose Body?, Dorothy Sayers

Night at the Vulcan, Ngaio Marsh

Wycliffe and the School Bullies, W.J. Burley

Wycliffe and How to Kill a Cat, W.J. Burley

The Ivory Grin, Ross Macdonald

A Mind to Murder, P.D. James

Sun Storm, Asa Larrsson

 

I found a few great classics.

The Outcry, Henry James (I'll grab just about any NYRB Classic!  This is James's last novel)

The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise  (I've always been curious about these two!)

Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, Flannery O'Connor (Unpublished essays and lectures as well as critical articles)

 

And a few novels, too.

The Summer Book, Tove Jansson (I have her Winter Book--this is another NYRB Classic!)

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry (Tara has talked about this one enthusiastically several times, so I was happy to find it finally) 

The Maytrees, Annie Dillard

The Spiritualist, Megan Chance (More spiritualism...) 

All in all a really good haul, don't you think?  Now what I need is a two week vacation at a cottage by the seaside (warm weather please) with meals catered in and lots and lots of uninterrupted reading time.  I've got the books, but I'm afraid I'll be fantasizing about the rest! 

Washington Square

I've read that Washington Square is Henry James's most American novel.  I've also read that it is his most accessible novel.  I'm a little intimidated by his later work, but I found Washington Square very easy going, yet an interesting and complex story that I'm still mulling over.  I read The Turn of the Screw a couple of years ago, and it had a similar effect on me--slightly unsettling in that case--but left me with lots to think about.  Although James had been living in London for some time, he wrote this novel while he was visiting Paris.   

The novel has a very simple premise really.  A young heiress is courted by a man her father believes to be a fortune hunter.  But she'll have him anyway and is egged on by her widowed aunt in what will likely end in tragedy.  The premise may be simple, but the characterization makes for a rich story.  The cast of characters is small and the story is told within fairly narrow confines in terms of setting, much of the action occurring in drawing rooms in New York city of the 1840s. 

Twenty-year old Catherine Sloper lives with her widowed father in a large and becoming home in Washington Square.  She's a rather plain young woman, dull and docile, though she has a fondness for fancy clothes.  I found her to be very opaque and kept wishing I could get inside her head to know what she really thought.  Her father is a distinguished doctor with a fashionable practice.  He generously provides for his daughter, but he's also disappointed in her.  Mrs. Penniman, Dr. Sloper's sister, came to live with them after the death of her husband.  It was meant to be a temporary arrangement, but she never left.  Instead she managed Catherine's education, and later she acts as a go-between Catherine and her suitor.  Catherine meets Morris Townsend, a handsome,charming and rather indolent (and yes, poor) young man at a party.  It's hard to say whether the instant attraction of Morris towards Catherine is for her or her money.  It's obvious what her father thinks.

The story begins as a sort of melodrama.  Morris convinces Catherine of his love for her and she apparently falls in love with him.  She's never met anyone like him, so good looking and well spoken and quite attentive to her.  Somehow her words always felt a little empty to me, however.  I was never sure how she really felt or if she meant them, as she was so restrained.  Her father convinces Catherine to at least go abroad for six months.  Catherine believes she might be able to change her father's mind about Morris.  Mrs. Penniman encourages the romance.  She takes a lot upon herself and becomes quite meddlesome in the situation.  What starts as a six month sojourn turns into a year long voyage.  Left at home in Washington Square Mrs. Penniman continues to receive Morris in the Sloper residence as an occasional guest.  I questioned her motivations as well.  Was she manipulative or was it just a little harmless mischief?

Dr. Sloper believes from the start that Morris Townsend wants only one thing--Catherine's fortune.  While she expects to inherit money upon the death of her father, her mother also left her a fair amount of money.  He absolutely forbids her marriage and has an unapologetic dislike for Morris.  If she marries him, she'll get none of his money.  It's an interesting battle of wills between Catherine and her father--if you can call it that.  Catherine is so passive and accepting of her father's wishes, or so it seems.  At first you think his actions are simply those of a devoted father to a beloved daughter who he fears is making a mistake in her affections, but there's a cruelty in his words and demeanor.  By the end of the story you're left wondering who's been the most injurious to Catherine--her father who seems to want her to fail and seeks revenge on her actions or Morris who's so suave and slick that you're never quite sure of his real intentions.  Actually I think by the end of the story I knew what his intentions were.

I really, really like Henry James.  I love an author who can take a simple story and make it so rich in meaning.  And it's not even really clear cut.  At least it wasn't to me, as I keep thinking about everything.  There's an unknown narrator, so you never really get inside the character's heads, just see their actions and hear their words.  This was all so artfully done and in nice, clear prose.  Surely he must have other books like this?  I've grabbed what I own by him, The Bostonians and Portrait of a Lady.  I'm not sure which I'll read next, but I know I want to read more.  I've heard his later work is much more difficult, but I'm willing to give it a try eventually.  Highly recommended!