Washington Square

The plain, quiet Catherine Sloper, heiress to a fortune, is courted by a charming but penniless suitor while her brilliant, coldly ironic father is certain the young man is only after her money—leaving Catherine caught between love and a father’s contempt. James’s spare, elegant novel is a quietly devastating study of a woman’s dignity, disillusionment, and hard-won strength. Set in old New York, Washington Square achieves a clarity and emotional force rare among his works. Compact and powerful, it is one of his most accessible and moving books, a perfect miniature of thwarted love and the slow, painful blossoming of self-respect in a heroine the world underestimates.