About This Book

A homely heiress with a clever, overbearing father is claimed by a handsome (and impoverished) young lover. "He wants only your money," her father sneers, "You won't get a penny from me if your marry him!"

What then? Will poor Katherine renounce her father and give up her inheritance? And if she does so . . . will her young man's affections stand the test? Suppose he is unwilling to let her make such a sacrifice. Then whose love will be tested!

About Henry James

(1843-1916) The shy, bookish Bostonian, younger brother of psychologist-philosopher William James, is acknowledged as one of the most influential theorists of fiction in the English-speaking world. By the time he was 25, he was a regular contributor to the prestigious Atlantic Monthly and The North American Review and was hailed as the "Best writer of short stories in America."

But it was not until the mid 1870s, when he was living in Paris and London, that he began to find himself as a novelist. "The American" was well received, and after publishing "Daisy Miller," and "The Europeans," in 1878 and "The Portrait of a Lady," and "Washington Square," in 1881, Henry James was established as a major figure in world literature.

James revisited America in 1881, but after his parents' death in 1882, he established permanent residence in England. He became friendly with other great literary figures such as Robert Browning, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Singer Sargent, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, and Edith Wharton, and ultimately became an English citizen shortly before his death.

Between 1886 and the end of the century, he wrote and produced "The Bostonians," and "The Princess Casamassima," and also several plays that were less successful than his novels. Just before 1900 came his famous ghostly story, "The Turn of the Screw."

But his finest novels were yet to come. In 1901, he completed "The Ambassadors," (published in 1903). "The Wings of the Dove" was produced in 1902, and "The Golden Bowl" in 1904.

James returned to the United States in 1904-05 where he wrote "The American Scene," that expressed his concern for the increasingly materialistic turn of American society.
During the last years of his life, he edited and arranged the 24 volumes of the "New York Edition" of his writings. These included 20 full-length novels, a dozen novelettes, over 100 short stories, five volumes of travel writings, and five books of essays. His novels are remarkable for their originality and insight, their controlled intensity of emotion, and distinctive style.