The Golden Bowl

By: Henry James

Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Katherine Kellgren

Published in 1904, The Golden Bowl is the last completed novel of Henry James. In it, the widowed American Adam Verver is in Europe with his daughter Maggie. They are rich, finely appreciative of European art and culture, and deeply attached to each other. Maggie has all the innocent charm of so many of James' young American heroines. She is engaged to Amerigo, an impoverished Italian prince; he must marry money, and as his name suggests, an American heiress is the perfect solution.

The golden bowl, first seen in a London curio shop, is used emblematically throughout the novel. Not solid gold but gilded crystal, the perfect surface conceals a flaw; it is symbolic of the relationship between the main characters and of the world in which they move.

Also in Europe is an old friend of Maggie's, Charlotte Stant, a girl of great charm and independence, and Maggie is blindly ignorant of the fact that she and the prince are lovers. Maggie and Amerigo are married and have a son, but Maggie remains dependent for real intimacy on her father, and she and Amerigo grow increasingly apart. Feeling that her father has suffered a loss through her marriage, Maggie decides to find him a wife, and her choice falls on Charlotte. Charlotte's affair with the prince continues, and Adam Verver seems to her to be a suitable and convenient match. When Maggie herself finally comes into possession of the golden bowl, the flaw is revealed to her, and, inadvertently, the truth about Amerigo and Charlotte.

Fanny Assingham (an older woman, aware of the truth from the beginning) deliberately breaks the bowl, and this marks the end of Maggie's innocence. She is no pathetic heroine-victim, however. Abstaining from outcry and outrage, she instead takes the reins and maneuvers people and events. She still wants to be with Amerigo, but he must continue to be worth having and they must all be saved further humiliations and indignities. To be a wife she must cease to be a daughter; Adam Verver and the unhappy Charlotte are banished forever to America, and the new Maggie will establish a real marriage with Amerigo.

Public Domain (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Katherine Kellgren does a miraculous job with James’s famously endless sentences. She keeps the rhythm and structure of each one clear without losing sight of its emotional content and its pace within the story—a feat something like running a hurdle course. Best of all, she creates vivid characters and makes the tensions among them truly absorbing as a sweet, rich American father and daughter find themselves in the toils of European sophisticates and in crisis everyone behaves beautifully.” ( AudioFile)

Family intrigue and betrayal

Narration is done well. Family secrets and deception threatens harmony and must be dealt with adroitly. The writing style is wordy but otherwise is very enjoyable.

The Golden Bowl - Slow Tangle of Emotions

Story: A classic but I will say it was interesting unfolding of events and emotions. A nice exploration of marriage, adultery, and family fidelity.

Reader: Excellent.

Production: Very good.

Incisive

I love Henry James's writing, but find this particular version rather unpleasant, as the reader's voice comes across as shrill.

rad audio experience

dont believe the haters just get this audiobook and read the book along with it and just chill out with some henry james for a while!! i promise its like a warm bath w wine esp if u just also have a warm bath + wine

Half of a Good Book

Henry James's "The Golden Bowl" manages a difficult feat -- being simultaneously brilliant and unsatisfying. This novel of adulterous intrigue examines a young woman, her rich father, her husband (a penurious prince), and her father's wife (who is also her husband's lover). It is divided into two parts. The first, entitled "The Prince," is excellent. Whether due to, or in spite of (depending on your feelings about late Henry James) James's exploration of the mental processes of the various characters, we develop a feeling for each of the characters, and care for their predicament. The second, entitled "The Princess," takes place largely within the mind of the prince's wife, as she tries to disentangle her husband from his lover, while protecting her father. The problem is that the mind of the princess is, frankly, a boring place to be for over 200 pages. It isn't that she's unlikeable -- though she *is* unlikeable -- but rather that the reader never develops a sense of empathy with her plight. The plot, such as it is, becomes predictable, yet the reader gets to a point where the main hope is for the story to reach its inevitable conclusion.

The narration is excellent. The detached tone suits the text, and while following the convolutions of James's sentences is never easy (even when *reading* the text), the narrator does yeoman's work making it understandable.

Ultimately, "The Golden Bowl" is worth the struggle, but it doesn't clear the bar by much.