<strong>Washington Square</strong> follows the comingofage of its plainfaced kindheartedheroine Catherine Sloper. Much to her father s vexation a handsomeopport... » 

Washington Square follows the comingofage of its plainfaced kindheartedheroine Catherine Sloper. Much to her father s vexation a handsomeopportunist named Morris Townsend woos the longsuffering heiress intent onclaiming her fortune. When Catherine stubbornly refuses to call off herengagement Dr. Sloper forces Catherine to choose between her inheritance andthe only man she will ever truly love. Cynthia Ozick in her Introduction towhat she calls Henry James s most American fiction writes that everyline every paragraph every chapter of Washington Square is a fleetfootedlight brigade an engine of irony. Precise and understated this charmingnovel endures as a matchless study of New York in the midnineteenth century. «