8 h 39 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 39 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the friend you trust with your heart understands everyone’s feelings except his own?
In Henry James’s Confidence, two American friends in Europe face a delicate question of love. Gordon Wright, earnest and scientifically minded, wants Bernard Longueville’s opinion of Angela Vivian as a possible wife. Bernard enjoys painting, travel, and watching people. Giving advice seems easier than making commitments of his own.
In Baden-Baden, conversation and leisure bring Bernard close to Angela, her mother, and their lively companion Blanche Evers. Yet Angela’s reserve resists his easy judgments. Gordon wants certainty, while Bernard is slow to question his own reactions. As visits and journeys draw them together, friendship gives a personal opinion the weight of authority.
What you’ll discover
- A confident observer Watch Bernard judge other people while his own feelings complicate what he sees.
- A heart under scrutiny Meet Angela Vivian, whose intelligence and reserve make easy conclusions difficult to trust.
- Friendship with real stakes Follow Gordon’s search for an answer that may shape his choice of a wife.
- Leisure and close observation Enter a German resort town where visits and conversations make personal judgments matter.
- Quiet comedy of misreading Enjoy clever people misunderstanding one another as James explores the limits of good intentions.
Who will love it
This book will delight readers who love sharp conversation, comedy of manners and the shifting loyalties of friends. If you enjoy European travel and love stories driven by character, you will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stranger enters Bernard's picture
- Friendship becomes a request for judgment
- Recognition creates an unspoken secret
- Gordon wants certainty before love
- Observation begins to conceal personal feeling
- A confident verdict leaves lasting doubt
- Marriage gives friendship a new unease
- Meeting Angela unsettles Bernard's self knowledge
- Impressions are not the same as facts
Who’s who
- Bernard LonguevilleA clever, charming American with no profession, who enjoys watching others and has trouble reading his own heart.
- Gordon WrightBernard's rich, honest friend, a patron of science, who wants to marry with his eyes open and cannot read the woman he loves.
- Angela VivianA beautiful, proud and quick-witted young woman who resists being studied and hides her feelings behind teasing.
- Mrs. VivianAngela's anxious, scrupulous mother, who loves her daughter deeply and worries about money, propriety and the right marriage.
- Blanche EversA pretty young flirt who chatters constantly and craves an audience, and who may be more serious than she seems.
- Captain LovelockA handsome English gambler with an auburn beard and no money, who follows Blanche wherever she goes.
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- Large print hardcover
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Confidence
by Henry James · 1879
A young American sketches a stranger in Siena, then finds that his close friend hopes to marry her.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“I want to marry with my eyes open. I want to know my wife.”
In short
What do you do when a stranger you sketched on a terrace in Siena walks back into your life as the woman your best friend hopes to marry? That is the question Bernard Longueville faces in Confidence, a comic novel of manners by Henry James.
Confidence at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 55 min3 h 50 min fast, 5 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 69,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1879by Henry James
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sketch in Siena starts everything
Bernard Longueville, a young American of leisure, lingers in Siena. He meant to stay two days and has stayed five. He is clever, handsome and good company.
On his last morning he sketches a quiet terrace by the city wall. A young woman in a gray dress with a crimson petticoat leans on the parapet and gazes at the hills. Bernard decides she improves his picture, so he adds her and asks her to stay still for five minutes. She answers him sharply and teases him for taking such a liberty.
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Details
- First published
- 1879
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
James, Henry. Confidence. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/confidence.
James, H. (2026). Confidence. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/confidence (Original work published 1879)
James, Henry. Confidence. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/confidence.
@book{james2026confidence,
author = {James, Henry},
title = {Confidence},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/confidence},
note = {First published 1879}
}
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What is Confidence by Henry James about?
It follows Bernard Longueville, who is asked by his friend Gordon Wright to study Angela Vivian, the woman Gordon hopes to marry. Bernard's judgment, and his own growing feelings, complicate the friendship across several years and countries.
Who are the main characters in Confidence?
The main figures are Bernard Longueville, his friend Gordon Wright, Angela Vivian and her mother, and a talkative young woman named Blanche Evers. Captain Lovelock, an English gambler who admires Blanche, plays a smaller but important role.
Where is Confidence set?
The story moves from Siena in Italy to Baden-Baden in Germany, then to New York, a Normandy beach resort and Paris. Each place gives a different mood, from quiet terraces to the lively gaming gardens of the spa town.
The author
Henry James
1843–1916 · American British novelist
Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. He settled in England in 1876 and became a British citizen in 1915. He wrote novels, stories, plays, and travel books. His works include Daisy Miller (1878), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and The Ambassadors (1903). He died in London in 1916.
“I want to marry with my eyes open. I want to know my wife.”
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