About this title: Possibly James's most complex and difficult work, THE GOLDEN BOWL concerns four characters: the American art connoisseur Adam Verver, his daughter Maggie, Maggie's old school friend Charlotte Stant, and Charlotte's ex-suitor Prince Amerigo. The fabulously wealthy Ververs encounter the prince on their European tour, and he and Maggie fall in love ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780140024494ISBN:0140024492
Description: Very Good. 0140024492 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in very good condition, may have slight worn corners and varying degre..._ read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: World Pub., New York
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780529048134ISBN:0529048132
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. xxiii, 563 p. 21 cm. "A Meridian book. " Bibliography: p. 561-563. age discoloration, slight wear on bottom edges, some creasing read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Barnes and Noble
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780760721483ISBN:0760721483
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. clean, straight, tight and unmarked Barnes and Noble printing. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 568 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"The Golden Bowl was a fascinating book. The emphasis on subtle and indirect communication, family dynamics, sacrifice, judgement of character, and even the complexity of the main character's eventual solution impressed me once again with James' care for detail, and especially for his deep understanding of the intricacy of human relationships and interactions. Compared to his other novels, The Golden Bowl is direct in format and is thus easier to follow, as it is focused directly and indirectly on communication between characters, and a bit less on the personal feelings and impressions made by scenes. James also uses different characters as voice so as to allow the reader the privelege of understanding both parties. The symbolism of the golden bowl itself is apt on more levels than I anticipated. Not to give the book away, but the conclusion is my favorite of James' if only because there is a sense of problem solved, and life restored to harmony. Maggie, the heroine in this book, is exemplary in character, thinking, and unique among James' heroines in that she is able to accomplish her goal."
"What a tour-de-force this book is! In this, even more than in any of the other James' novels I read, there is the story on the surface and the story underneath -- or maybe even stories. Near the end I found the story underneath very chilling, though very subtle. The power of this one scene could change your thought process about what you thought was going on previously. How James gets into the heads of these individuals is amazing -- or should I say masterful, as he is complete control, and all I could do was follow."
"Only on the very rarest of occasions - and of these I cannot, at this moment, to my chagrin, recall a specific one to give as an example - have I given up on a novel, however overflowing with self-indulgence, pomposity, and comma-philia, but after over one hundred pages of labyrinthine, impenetrable prose, I had to accept the fact that my lowly, common, and, yes, indolent, brain - and this was a painful, though enlightening epiphany that has altered, though not irrevocably changed, my approach to classic literature - does not have the patience required, or the stoic determination to decipher page-long, meandering sentences, and finally I set this book aside, or rather, I must admit, I heaved it into the closest waste receptacle, for never would I wish such agony on a reader!
Bloody hell.
I would have given this one star, but there's a story in here somewhere, and a good one. Save yourself the pain and see the movie instead."
"I'm pretty sure that Henry James does not like me. I'm pretty sure I do not like him, and the proof is in The Golden Bowl . There is a remarkably high verbiage-to-lucidity ratio in this novel, probably because James never read Elements of Style or followed its dictum to avoid unnecessary words. Of course, he died before that guide came out, and so it's hard - but not impossible - to blame him. As you trudge through the the desert of words in this novel and try to decipher who "she" or "he" refer to, you may realize that the book is actually about something.
What it's not about is the drama of a love triangle, or a love square, as in this case. That would be much too easy for you, dumb reader. A love quadrilateral is definitely present, but that's not really what it is about. One thing it may be about, and I could be wrong about this, is the deception of the innocent, in this case the innocent is Maggie Verver, who, although the sole daughter of the wealthy Adam Verver, is more wallflower than Paris Hilton. The deceptors include the Prince, who marries for money, the mooching Charlotte Stant, and the conscienceless meddler Fanny Assingham. The deceived Maggie, whose "eww!" relationship with her father is partly to blame for the problems, learns about the deception fairly early on, but decides to play the part of the martyr instead of the aggrieved, and engages in her own deceptions and machinations (it's really not as devious as it may sound). In the end there is a car chase and many explosions and a tidy Hollywood movie ending and the hint of a sequel. Oh, and vampires. Yeah, vampires. Aren't you sorry now that you stopped reading on page five? Anyway, I don't really want to get too much into this, since James can say it much worse and with far more words. I would like to point out, however, that there is a dichotomy between the outward signs of propiety -including the propiety of James's words and style of writing - and the suggested sins. I would also like to point out that no one really wins. That's all.
One last thing that really bugs me. In several of James's novels he presents poor people, in this case, Charlotte. James does not appear to understand what poverty is, since there appears to be no difference in lifestyle between the rich and the poor.
One other last thing, and this time I really mean it: Do any of the characters do any work? They just seem to lounge about all day with nothing to do. Get a job, you hippies!"
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