What Maisie Knew
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Publisher Description
Published: 1897
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 parents. The book is also a masterly technical achievement by James, as it follows the title character from earliest childhood to precocious maturity.
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 each other. Beale Farange marries Miss Overmore, Maisie's pretty governess, while Ida marries the likeable but weak Sir Claude. Maisie gets a new governess: the frumpy, somewhat-ridiculous but devoted Mrs. Wix...
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Young Maisie Farange finds herself the unwitting pawn in her parents' divorce, as her mother and father use her as a tool for personal attacks. As both parents find new romantic partners, Maisie, who is mature beyond her age, is thrust even further into an adult world of betrayal and sexual gamesmanship. In this audio edition, Maureen O'Brien delivers a standout performance of James's classic novella. Even for audiences who might not enjoy James's prose, O'Brien's narration is both gripping and suitably melancholy. She captures the boiling anger of the adult world, as well as Maisie's sadness and confusion. Maisie's relationship with her governess Mrs. Wix, the sole point of emotional consistency in the young girl's life, is particularly poignant, thanks to O'Brien's reading. Though there's relatively little dialogue in James's work most of the action takes place through narration, filtered through Maisie's point of view O'Brien excels at creating unique personalities for the different characters. Her Maisie, in particular, sounds like a child intelligent but also extremely vulnerable.
