Riassunto
Riassunto di Quel che sapeva Maisie
A chi è rivolto
For readers who enjoy close attention to motive and manners, stories told through one mind, and children’s views of adult behaviour. It also suits anyone moved by stories of children caught in a divorce.
Che cos’è questo libro
What Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, published in 1897. It follows a little girl named Maisie Farange from about the age of six into early adolescence. Her parents divorce in the first pages, and for years afterward they use her as a weapon, a messenger and a burden. The book gives you nearly all of it through what Maisie sees and half understands.
James wrote it in the late stage of his career. He was interested in a simple problem. A child watches adults lie, flirt, cheat and quarrel, but she lacks the words and the experience to name what she sees. What does she make of it? James lets her take in far more than anyone around her suspects, and the reader sees both her small view and the larger scene behind it.
In this summary you will meet the Farange parents, the two governesses who care for Maisie, and the charming young man who enters her life by marriage. You will see how Maisie learns to hide her knowledge as a means of staying safe. You will also see what the novel says about love, ownership and decency. Let us begin where the book begins, with a courtroom and a division of a child.
In questo riassunto
- 1A court divides a child in twoFree
- 2Two governesses, two kinds of care
- 3New marriages and a charming stepfather
- 4The child who carries the messages
- 5Parents who slip away from her
- 6Sir Claude and the second Mrs Beale
- 7What Maisie knows and what she cannot say
- 8Money, ownership and who has a claim
- 9How James tells it through a child's eyes
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A court divides a child in two
The novel opens with a divorce case. Ida and Beale Farange have been married for some years, and their quarrels have become public. The court grants the divorce and makes an unusual ruling about their daughter. Maisie will spend six months with her father and six months with her mother, in turn.
The ruling sounds fair on paper. In practice it turns the child into a thing passed back and forth. Neither parent wants her out of love so much as out of spite. Each sees in her a chance to hurt the other, and each is eager to prove the other unfit.
Maisie is very young, and James shows how she learns to survive. She listens. She is given messages to carry from one parent to the other, and these messages are insults. Her father tells her to say something rude about her mother, and her mother does the same in return. She learns to repeat the words exactly, and then she learns that this is a dangerous thing to do.
The point is that she does not yet understand the meaning of the cruelty, but she feels its weight. She notices how a face changes when she delivers a message. She starts to hold back, to say less, to wait before she speaks. It is her first defence, and it grows into a habit.
From the start, the book makes a quiet claim. A child can be loved in name and used in fact, and the difference shows in small things. The adults feel they are being clever. Maisie is simply learning, one afternoon at a time, how little she can trust them.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Maisie Farange
- Maisie is a watchful little girl whose divorced parents use her as a messenger in their continuing quarrels.
- Ida Farange
- Ida is Maisie's vain, quarrelsome mother, who treats her daughter as a weapon against her former husband.
- Beale Farange
- Beale is Maisie's self-absorbed father, whose rivalry with Ida takes precedence over caring for their daughter.
- Mrs Wix
- Mrs Wix is the anxious governess hired by Ida, offering Maisie devoted care and firm moral instruction.
- Miss Overmore
- Miss Overmore is Maisie's charming young governess in Beale's household, whose affection mingles with ambitions of her own.
- Sir Claude
- Sir Claude is Ida's charming young second husband, who befriends Maisie but struggles to stand firm against others.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 98,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 35 min
- Listening time10 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Quel che sapeva Maisie
What is What Maisie Knew about?
It tells of a girl named Maisie whose parents divorce and use her as a weapon in their quarrels. She is moved between homes and caretakers, and learns to understand the adults around her.
Who is Mrs Wix in What Maisie Knew?
Mrs Wix is Maisie's governess, hired by her mother. She is older, plain and anxious, mourns her own dead daughter, and gives Maisie steady, unselfish care that contrasts with the parents.
When was What Maisie Knew written?
Henry James published it in 1897. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, but it draws on a real social problem, the treatment of children in divorces among fashionable families.
Is What Maisie Knew hard to read?
The story itself is clear, and it is told closely through a child's eyes.
What is the main message of What Maisie Knew?
The book suggests that a child can see through adult pretence and form a moral sense of her own. It also shows how selfish adults damage children by treating them as property.