Home The Golden Bowl: Complete by Taylor Anderson (Editor); Henry James (ISBN: 9781981528912)

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The Golden Bowl: Complete Paperback - 2017

Name: The Golden Bowl: Complete
Price: 12.00 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781981528912

by Taylor Anderson (Editor); Henry James

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About this book

The Golden Bowl, Henry James’ last completed novel, is widely considered to be one of the author’s best works (along with The Ambassadors and The Wings of a Dove). In it, James continues to explore his favored themes of marriage, money, and psychological warfare. The novel, set in England, tells the story of American heiress Maggie Verver, who is engaged to Amerigo, an impoverished Italian prince. Maggie’s father, Adam, travels to London for the wedding and meets Charlotte Stant, a friend of both Maggie and the prince. In a nutshell, The Golden Bowl is about Maggie’s education on marriage, adultery, and the aftermath.

The title of the novel comes from a Biblical passage, Ecclesiastes 12:6-7: "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern… then shall the dust return to the earth as it was…” The golden bowl, first seen in a London curio shop, is used emblematically throughout the novel.

The Golden Bowl is ranked 32nd on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century and 36th on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels. Adaptations include the highly praised 1972 BBC six-hour-long televised version and the 2000 film directed by James Ivory, starring Uma Thurman, Nick Nolte, Kate Beckinsale, and Jeremy Northam.

From the publisher

The Golden Bowl is a 1904 novel by Henry James. Set in England, this complex, intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the "major phase" of James' career. The Golden Bowl explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses.
The novel focuses deeply and almost exclusively on the consciousness of the central characters, with sometimes obsessive detail but also with powerful insight. The title is taken from Ecclesiastes 12: "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity."

First Edition Identification

Charles Scribner’s Sons first published The Golden Bowl in New York in December 1904. In a print run of 2,000 copies, the two-volume first edition is bound in brown cloth and has no additional printings listed on the copyright page.