10 h 56 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a child learn when the people meant to protect her use her to hurt each other?
Maisie Farange is about six when her parents divorce. Ida and Beale turn their daughter into a messenger, a weapon, and a burden. In Henry James's What Maisie Knew, new marriages bring new attachments, but no simple refuge. Maisie watches the adults quarrel and deceive, taking in more than they suspect and understanding less than she needs.
Around her stand two governesses: charming Miss Overmore and anxious, devoted Mrs Wix. Her young stepfather, Sir Claude, offers kindness, though his wish to please everyone leaves him weak. James stays close to Maisie's mind, letting you notice the gap between what she sees and what she can name. Affection becomes hard to separate from possession.
What you’ll discover
- A watchful child's mind See adult betrayals through Maisie's alert eyes, where small observations carry meanings she cannot yet name.
- Two kinds of care Meet governesses whose contrasting affections make the question of genuine care feel urgent.
- Kindness tangled with weakness Watch Sir Claude struggle between his affection for Maisie and his need to please.
- The uses of silence Follow Maisie as she learns that hiding her knowledge can help keep her safe.
- Love without ownership Consider what decency means when parents treat a child as something to claim or discard.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A court divides a child in two
- Two governesses, two kinds of care
- New marriages and a charming stepfather
- The child who carries the messages
- Parents who slip away from her
- Sir Claude and the second Mrs Beale
- What Maisie knows and what she cannot say
- Money, ownership and who has a claim
- How James tells it through a child's eyes
Who’s who
- Maisie FarangeA watchful little girl whose parents divorce. She learns to hide what she sees and slowly forms her own sense of right and wrong.
- Ida FarangeMaisie's mother, vain and quarrelsome, who uses her daughter to wound her former husband and then loses interest in her.
- Beale FarangeMaisie's father, a self-absorbed man who treats his daughter as a tool in his feud and a nuisance in his pleasures.
- Mrs WixMaisie's anxious, old-fashioned governess, poor and plain, who mourns her own dead daughter and loves Maisie with steady devotion.
- Miss OvermoreMaisie's young, charming governess, later the second Mrs Beale, whose warmth is real but whose motives are mixed.
- Sir ClaudeIda's young, kind and weak second husband, who befriends Maisie and wants everyone to like him.
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What Maisie Knew
by Henry James · 1897
Caught between her divorced parents, Maisie learns to hide what she knows to keep herself safe.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 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.
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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.
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.
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