The Golden Bowl by Henry James Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Golden Bowl is one of James' later works, first published in 1904 and revised for the New York edition in 1909. The copy I read, the Everyman's Library edition, prints the latter version.

This was the third full novel I've read by Henry James, and sadly it might have been my least favourite. It has the reputation of being quite difficult to read, and now I can see why. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this story at all.

First for the plot. I don't want to give anything away, so I'm going to be brief here (also, don't read the introduction of the Everyman's copy if you don't want to be spoiled). The Golden Bowl is the story of a father and his daughter and their respective marriages. The main theme here is betrayal and how it affects those involved, but the story also explores human relationships in general. We follow Maggie Verver, daughter of a very, very rich American in England, and her husband, a bankrupt Italian Prince. The two other protagonists are Charlotte, a friend of Maggie's, and Fanny Assingham, who could be considered to be part of the Verver family, as she and her husband are extremely close to them.

Now to what I didn't enjoy too much about this very interesting novel. The syntax in here is pretty exhausting and sometimes hard to follow, as James uses many long sentences and very few dialogue. Sometimes there will be five pages or more without anyone speaking and stream of consciousness like explorations of character's thoughts and experiences. Even though I enjoy reading about a situation from different perspectives and the discussion of situations and abstract ideas, this was a bit of a slog and I struggled to stay alert over pages of rambling. James really analyses every action the protagonists take, and most of their characteristics, in minute detail. While this was indeed fascinating and thought-provoking most of the time, it sometimes bored me a little. I do feel like this book needs to be re-read several times, however, because of this. There is so much in there that it is impossible to pick everything up on a first reading. I think that once one knows how the plot turns out, it will be much easier and more interesting to pay attention to the language and the philosophical parts of the narrative.

That said, I enjoyed this book very much most of the time. The characters are incredibly real, they are each depicted through several different perspectives and from many different angles, so that one really gets to know them and they all become highly individualized. The betrayal is analyzed through the thoughts of at least three characters, sometimes even a fourth, so nothing in this book appears to have just one side. It shows how differently every character experiences a situation and thus the story proves that nothing in life is just black and white. Even adulterers may be pardoned and can not be considered as being purely evil.
The language, despite making for a very slow and sometimes boring reading experience, is also extremely beautiful. Henry James uses a ton of suitable similes and some allegories, so the rather small plot takes on an immense shape. By explaining everything with well chosen imagery, James creates a many-faceted story that hides a lot of meaning and shows life as very colourful and intricate. My favourite part was definitely the ending, I just loved how Maggie changed and came to deal with a very difficult situation!

So, overall this is still my least favourite Henry James so far, but that doesn't mean it's going to stay that way. I definitely want to re-read it at some point, and this feels like a story that is going to stick with me, just like The Portrait of a Lady did. The good parts of it outweigh the one negative point, its slowness, by far, as one is rewarded for it with a vivid story full of life and extremely fleshed-out characters. I hope I made any sense with this, the book is just a bit difficult to explain as there are so many layers to it.