The Spoils of Poynton

Negative reviews of this small gem baffle me. The writing is so refined that in the best passages slide forth in a leisurely, ambling brilliance. Fleda Vetch, who dreams away the chance of marriage and ruins both her own and her loved one's prospects, in her indecision and her vanity, has a great Jamesian fineness and clearness. The dialogue is crisp and witty. The possessive, acute Mrs Gereth a wonderfully large creation; and the ending a satisfying moment of justice after a bitter climax. Recommended.

Fleda is gifted with sensitivity to beauty. She finds it in the "things" her friend Mrs. Gereth has spent a lifetime collecting and in Mrs. Gereth's son, Owen. If Fleda acted with even a touch of cunning -- or just acted, period -- she could possess both. James gives her many opportunities, but, for some maddening reason, she won't seize them. Why? James is at his enigmatic best in this tightly plotted tale written after his experiences as a playwright led him to show more and tell the reader less.

Henry James' Spoils of Poynton is a jewel--quite a prize indeed. His shorter fiction and essays are among his most balanced efforts. He's a writer who is constantly obsessed with polishing his work. And the larger the piece the more cumbersome and tedious that polishing often becomes for him. This small work with few of the devisive distraction that seem to haunt his major projects, contains some his crispest and most telling dialogue. And you may feel in certain succinct instances that you have somehow entered profoundly into the pysche of that character for a moment Here, at least on those rare occasions, James' subtlety and charm counterbalance his observation of human cruelty with all the poise the author may have wished..