All Formats & Editions

What Maisie Knew is Henry James's damning portrait of adultery, jealousy and possession on the decadent fringe of English upper-class society. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Christopher Ricks.

First published serially in 1897, Henry James's novel "What Maisie Knew" is the story of Beale and Ida Farange and their young daughter, Maisie. When Maisie is very young, Beale and Ida divorce and the court orders that the custody of Maisie be split between the two. Spending... Read Full Overview

What Maisie Knew (1897) 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... Read Full Overview

When Beale and Ida Farange are divorced, the court decrees that their only child, the very young Maisie, will shuttle back and forth between them, spending six months of the year with each. The parents are immoral and frivolous, and they use Maisie to intensify their hatred of... Read Full Overview

What Maise Knew by Henry James tells the tale of Beale and Ida Farange who when divorced, the court decrees that their only child, Maisie, wil spend six months of the year with each parent. The parents are immoral and devious, and they use Maisie to intensify their hatred of... Read Full Overview

Henry James was an American-born writer who was the son of a clergyman. James spent much of his early life travelling Europe and was tutored in cities such as Geneva, London and Paris. James' even attended Harvard Law School but found that he preferred writing to practicing law... Read Full Overview

" James] is the most intelligent man of his generation." -T. S. Eliot

"Reading Henry James is like putting a new faculty to the test. This is the true morality." -Anita Brookner

"A very modern story about aimless lives and messy marriages"- Paul Theroux

" James] is the most intelligent man of his generation." -T. S. Eliot

"Reading Henry James is like putting a new faculty to the test. This is the true morality." -Anita Brookner

"A very modern story about aimless lives and messy marriages"- Paul Theroux

Seen through the eyes of a young girl, we watch her divorced parents pursue their separate lives with different lovers-all the while competing for her affection and approval, using her, in part, to justify their behavior. Maisie, the young girl may perceive their world with a... Read Full Overview

What Maisie Knew tracks the plight of Maisie Farange, whose parents, Beale and Ida, are in the thick of a bitter divorce battle. The novel follows our innocent heroine as she charts these unsettling waters, as the adults that make up her world shift her like a pawn, and new role... Read Full Overview

What Maisie Knew (1897) 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... Read Full Overview

What Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Chap-Book and (revised and abridged) in the New Review in 1897 and then as a book later that year. It tells the story of the sensitive daughter of divorced, irresponsible and narcissistic parents... Read Full Overview

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.

In... Read Full Overview

What Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Chap-Book and (revised and abridged) in the New Review in 1897 and then as a book later that year. It tells the story of the sensitive daughter of divorced, irresponsible and narcissistic parents... Read Full Overview

Caught in the crossfire of her parents' acrimonious divorce, witness to their battles, intrigues and affairs, neglected and exploited, Maisie is a child who knows too much about the world of adults. James's portrait of a little girl who maintains her goodness and dignity in the... Read Full Overview