Other editions of book What Maisie Knew Illustrated

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. The book follows the title character from earliest childhood to precocious maturity.

First published in 1897 in The Chap-Book, one of the most popular literary magazines in America at the end of the 19th century, and a bit later in the New Review in an abridged version, What Maisie Knew is one of the less known writings by Henry James, but one that doesn’t lack the depth, the insight into human nature and the criticism of the moral attitudes of the age that have made James such an extraordinary novelist.The book explores the topic of divorce, still very rare at the time the novel was written and the theme of dysfunctional families, while also providing a glimpse into the complex and often mysterious universe of childhood. The story of What Maisie Knew starts with the divorce of Maisie’s parents, following which the girl divides her time between her parents, spending six months a year with her mother and the rest of the year with her father.Neither Maisie’s mother, nor her father pays sufficient attention to the girl and she soon understands that her parents use her against each other. As can be expected, she grows up to be a very disillusioned, often cynical young lady. She develops extraordinary coping skills and becomes very resilient, too – both her parents remarry not long after the divorce, so Maisie is faced with lots of strange and very often painful situations she must adjust to.Maisie is a typical Jamesian character. In the beginning, she is an innocent child who becomes the victim of the selfishness and deplorable behavior of her parents and, by the end, at the still young age of thirteen, she is wise enough to come up with her own understanding of right and wrong, interpretation that she comes to based on her own horrible experiences, which no child should ever have in the first place.

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. The book follows the title character from earliest childhood to precocious maturity.

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. The book follows the title character from earliest childhood to precocious maturity.