eShop USA > Books > The Spoils of Poynton (Penguin Classics)
The Spoils of Poynton (Penguin Classics)
List Price: $13.00Our Price: $11.05 You Save: $1.95 (15%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140432886
ISBN: 0140432884
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: March 01, 1988
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Nice piece of 1890s James
Negative reviews of this small gem baffle me. The writing is so refined that in the best passages slide forth in a leisurely, ambling brilliance. Fleda Vetch, who dreams away the chance of marriage and ruins both her own and her loved one's prospects, in her indecision and her vanity, has a great Jamesian fineness and clearness. The dialogue is crisp and witty. The possessive, acute Mrs Gereth a wonderfully large creation; and the ending a satisfying moment of justice after a bitter climax. ... Read More
Rating:  - Not the Master's Strongest
I give this three stars in an internal world where 5 is James at his best. In comparison to most fiction the rating would be higher, but as a DEVOUT fan, I live in my own internal world. In that world, James who was more critical than any of us, would understand that in comparison to other later era work and even middle period work, Spoils does not live up to his best. It is fun and light, another reviewer mentioned obvious signs of a stylistic shift perhaps being too obvious here. That feels on ... Read More
Rating:  - Just this side of unreadable
Henry James, The Spoils of Poynton (Dell, 1897)
The Spoils of Ponyton is the first novel James wrote in his "later style," in other words, drawing-room satire that isn't really about much of anything at all. For some odd reason, later-era James is what's universally praised in lit classes around the globe, while the early stuff, which is actually worth reading, is largely ignored.
To be fair, James did get better at satire as time went on, but The Spoils of Ponyton has all the ... Read More
Rating: - Fairly weak for James...
I read this one a few years ago, and I have to rank it at the bottom of the list (along with "The Europeans").
Though Fleda Vetch can be fascinating in a Hamlet-esque way (through her infuriating inability to act), this novel is far from a must-read as far as James goes.
Rating: - A beautifully made parable
Fleda is gifted with sensitivity to beauty. She finds it in the "things" her friend Mrs. Gereth has spent a lifetime collecting and in Mrs. Gereth's son, Owen. If Fleda acted with even a touch of cunning -- or just acted, period -- she could possess both. James gives her many opportunities, but, for some maddening reason, she won't seize them. Why? James is at his enigmatic best in this tightly plotted tale written after his experiences as a playwright led him to show more and tell the reader ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
