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What Maisie Knew represents one of James's finest reflections on the rites of passage from wonder to knowledge, and the question of their finality. The child of violently divorced parents, Maisie Farange opens her eyes on a distinctly modern world. Mothers and fathers keep changing their partners and names, while she herself becomes the pretext for all sorts of adult sexual intrigue. In this classic tale of the death of childhood, there is a savage comedy that owes much to Dickens. But for his portrayal of the child's capacity for intelligent 'wonder', James summons all the subtlety he devotes elsewhere to his most celebrated adult protagonists. Neglected and exploited by everyone around her, Maisie inspires James to dwell with extraordinary acuteness on the things that may pass between adult and child. In addition to a new introduction, this edition of the novel offers particularly detailed notes, bibliography, and a list of variant readings.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Fiction, Girls, Remarried people, Children of divorced parents, Governesses, Classic Literature, Family life, fiction, Fiction, general, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Large type books, Divorce, Married people, fiction, Fiction, coming of age, Fiction, family life, general, Divorced people, fictionShowing 11 featured editions. View all 68 editions?
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What Maisie Knew (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Classics)
October 5, 2000, Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Paperback
in English
- New Ed edition
1840224126 9781840224122
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What Maisie Knew (Oxford World's Classics)
May 29, 1998, Oxford University Press, USA
in English
0192835912 9780192835918
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Book Details
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Chatham
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Work 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.
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August 4, 2013 | Edited by VacuumBot | Updated format 'E-book' to 'eBook' |
February 3, 2013 | Edited by VacuumBot | Updated format 'eBook' to 'E-book'; Removed author from Edition (author found in Work) |
June 23, 2010 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record. |