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Henry James

Modern Library, New York, 1950; originally published 1880, English

Fiction

From the Publisher. Tale of a trapped daughter and domineering father, a quiet tragedy of money and love and innocence betrayed. Catherine Sloper, heiress to a fortune, attracts the attention of a good-looking but penniless young man, Morris Townsend, but her father is convinced that his motives are merely mercenary. He will not consent to the marriage, regardless of the cost to his daughter. Out of this classic confrontation Henry James fashioned one of his most deftly searching shorter fictions, a tale of great depth of meaning and understanding. First published in 1880 but set some 40 years earlier in a pre-Civil War New York, the novel reflects ironically on the restricted world in which its heroine is marooned.

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