Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der Aufschrei
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who enjoy sharp talk in drawing rooms, comedies about money and manners, and quarrels over art will find plenty here. It suits anyone curious about collectors, country houses and the fate of national treasures.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Outcry is a comic novel by Henry James, published in 1911. It is set among the English upper class, in a world where great houses hold great paintings and the money to keep them has run low. Rich American collectors have begun to buy, and the English newspapers have begun to cry out. James builds a whole story on one question. Will an English lord sell a treasured picture to a buyer from New York?
The lord is Theign, master of Dedborough Place. His house holds a Sir Joshua portrait and a Moretto from Brescia. His elder daughter, Kitty, owes enormous gambling debts. His younger daughter, Grace, is urged to marry a duchess's son. Then a young art expert named Hugh Crimble comes to look at the pictures, and he starts a chain of events that nobody in the house can control.
What you get is a quick comedy of manners, carried almost entirely by talk in halls and drawing rooms. It also asks a sharp question. Who owns a masterpiece, the family that inherited it or the country that loves it? Your first key point takes you to Dedborough on a spring afternoon, with hundreds of children in the park and the first visitors gathering in the hall.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A Great House Fills With VisitorsFree
- 2A Collector Who Wants Business Before Tea
- 3A Proposal Comes With a Price Tag
- 4A Name Is Doubted and a Quarrel Begins
- 5Hugh Plans to Make Some Noise
- 6Father and Daughter Reach a Breaking Point
- 7The Outcry Grows and Theign Comes Home
- 8Who Owns a Masterpiece, Family or Nation
- 9How James Tells It Through Talk
Punkt 1 von 9
A Great House Fills With Visitors
The story opens on a spring afternoon at Dedborough Place, the country house of Lord Theign. The park is open for a school feast, and hundreds of children from the village have gathered there. Lord Theign is out among them, giving advice at the top of his voice. Indoors the hall is quiet, with old portraits, tapestries and cabinets that have stood in place for two centuries. The butler, Banks, moves through it all with great dignity.
Lord John, the younger son of a duchess, is the first visitor we meet. He finds Lady Sandgate in the hall with a pink telegram in her hand. She is a handsome woman past forty, a frequent guest and a close friend of the master of the house. The two talk like people who read each other very well. Both of them, it soon appears, have come hoping to gain something.
Their talk shows the money that lies behind the good manners. Lord Theign's elder daughter, Lady Imber, who is called Kitty, is a young widow with huge gambling debts. Many of them are owed to Lord John's own mother, the Duchess. Kitty has thrown herself on her father once again. Lady Sandgate guesses that the Duchess will wipe the debt clean if Lady Grace, the younger daughter, agrees to marry Lord John.
Each of them also has an American on the way. Lord John has promised to show Mr. Breckenridge Bender the Dedborough pictures, above all the Sir Joshua portrait called The Beautiful Duchess of Waterbridge. He tells Lady Sandgate that Bender has just paid Lady Lappington eight thousand pounds in cash for a Venetian family group by Longhi. The news makes her gasp. She hears the figure with horror and with a little longing.
Lady Sandgate has a treasure of her own, a Lawrence portrait of her great-grandmother in her wedding dress. Bender has been pressing her to sell it, and she says she has refused. Yet she is plainly short of money, and she knows it. She tells Lord John that national treasures should not be scattered around the world. He answers lightly that he is a friend to his friends.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Questions about Der Aufschrei
What is The Outcry by Henry James about?
It follows an English lord, Theign, who is tempted to sell a valuable portrait to a rich American collector, and the young art expert and daughter who try to stop him. Money, pride, marriage and public opinion are all tangled in the fight.
Who is Mr. Bender in The Outcry?
Mr. Breckenridge Bender is a wealthy American collector who is buying great pictures in England. He is friendly, direct and very sure of his money, and his wish for a grand and costly painting drives the plot.
What is a Mantovano in The Outcry?
A Mantovano is a work by a rare painter, of whom only seven examples are known in the story. Hugh Crimble thinks Theign's Moretto is really one, which would make it far more valuable and more worth keeping in England.
Is The Outcry based on a true story, and when was it written?
It is a work of fiction published in 1911. It draws on a real worry of its time, when wealthy foreign buyers were purchasing paintings from English houses and newspapers called for the nation to keep its treasures.
Is The Outcry worth reading?
It offers lively talk, comic characters and a question that still matters, who a great painting belongs to. Its scenes are short and built around clear conflicts, so readers who like witty social comedy can follow it with pleasure.