I got this book when my local bookshop closed (a sad day for my poor wallet. The bookshop has since been replaced with yet another, so my wallet hasn’t recovered). I bought it despite my bad experience reading Henry James in my Short Story class, suffering through two of his short stories that were way too complicated for my poor brain. However, I had read and loved Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw, so I decided to give good ol’ Henry a second shot. My conclusion? I like his work when I’m not reading it for a class.

Little known fact (okay, not really little known, but a cool fact nonetheless): Henry’s brother, William James, is considered one of the fathers of modern psychology. Apparently, the dinners at their household were very interesting.

Why do I bring this up? Because Henry James excels in describing psychological states. He has a profound insight to his characters and I find it really amazing to read. All of his characters are round, well-developed and interesting, in their own different ways. And, obviously, they are incredibly realistic. You can almost feel as if you knew them personally.

In this particular book, the main characters are a father and his daughter, the Slopes. She, Catherine, wants to marry Morris Townsend, but her father doesn’t approve of the match. Then begins the center of the novel, the mute fight between the two of them, who are constantly fighting for years about the issue. It’s very interesting, because Dr. Slope, the father, doesn’t think too highly of his daughter. He actually mentions that she is ugly and stupid several times.

Catherine is stubborn and insists in not-breaking her engagement to Townsend. Her father threatens to withhold her inheritance if she marries against her wished, but she holds on. He actually thinks that it will make Townsend leave her (Dr. Slope thinks he only wants Catherine’s money), but is greatly surprised when he doesn’t. This earns the young man some respect from him, but the doctor doesn’t want to change his word, so he maintains it, though he tries to convince Catherine to do otherwise, with methods than go from mocking to travelling to Europe.

I really liked Catherine. She’s decided and brave, and dares to confront her father’s bullshit, something that nobody seems to do. She didn’t even care about the cost that all that would have on her own life. Maybe it’s not a good way to be, but it’s amazing for a literary character. James is a really good psychological writer, and his characters tend to be outside any norm, which I find particularly interesting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s dense, as all of James’ work, so it’s not an easy read, but it’s no the Ulysses and once you get a grip of the story it’s easy to fall for it and keep reading. If you are used to classics, this is a good shot in any case.