Washington Square

In New York in the 1840s, Catherine Sloper is the plain, shy and kind daughter of Dr Austin Sloper, a brilliant, sarcastic physician who has never forgiven her for not being like her beautiful, dead mother. When the charming but penniless Morris Townsend begins to court her, her father is sure he is after her inheritance and forbids the marriage, while her romantic aunt Lavinia Penniman encourages the affair. Catherine must find out what she herself wants.

Henry James published this short novel in 1880, building it from an anecdote told to him by the actress Fanny Kemble. Spare and ironic, with a quiet heroine who turns out to be unexpectedly strong, it is one of his most accessible books; the stage and film versions are called The Heiress. Continue with The Portrait of a Lady, and see his life.

Henry James (1843–1916) was born in New York, the brother of the philosopher William James, and was educated in Europe and America. In 1876 he settled in London, and later in the small town of Rye, and spent his life writing about Americans in Europe and the clash of innocence and experience.

In some twenty novels and more than a hundred stories, including The Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw, he developed a subtle, psychological style that influenced modern fiction. He became a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death.