Golden Bowl

From AudioFile
The St. Charles Players enliven this typical Henry James tale of an American father and daughter navigating through very sticky British relationships. The pomp and snobbery of James's work play out complete with sound effects, such as crackling fires, braying horses, and a different actor for each character. Surprisingly, these effects enhance the overall presentation, adding color to the predictable and intricate plot line. The varied performers artfully weave this story of complicated relationships and social mores, with its symbolism of the cracked golden bowl, into a fresh story. Where James can be tiresome and mired in heavy text, the St. Charles Players bring air and light into his weighty prose and stifling English gentry. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
This story of the alliance between Italian aristocracy and American millionaires is "a work unique among all [James's] novels: it is [his] only novel in which things come out right for his characters ...he had finally resolved the questions, curious and passionate, that had kept him at his desk on his inquiries into the process of living. He could now make his peace with America--and he could now collect and unify the work of a lifetime."


The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by Henry James, published in 1904. Wealthy American widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie live in Europe, where they collect art and relish each other's company. Through the efforts of the manipulative Fanny Assingham, Maggie becomes engaged to Amerigo, an Italian prince in reduced circumstances, but remains blind to his rekindled affair with her longtime friend Charlotte Stant. Maggie and Amerigo marry, and later, after Charlotte and Adam have also wed, both spouses learn of the ongoing affair, though neither seeks a confrontation. Not until Maggie buys the gilded crystal bowl of the title as a birthday present for Adam does truth crack the veneer of propriety.


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The great Henry James's last completed novel (1904) concerns a young American woman who marries an impoverished Italian prince, who is having an affair with his wife's best friend, who, in turn, is married to her lover's father-in-law. If you think the relationships are complex, wait until you read the prose—page-long sentences full of qualifiers, asides, and every type of dependent clause. These elements do not merely snake along, but intertwine in complex grammatical relationships that together communicate the subtlest and most perceptive distinctions. Christopher Cazenove, having either the bravery or hubris to take the book on for listeners, gives them a sonorous, indeed beautiful, reading. It is, however, also pretentious and mannered; Cazenove has not bothered to learn his text, but fakes his way throughout via his masterful technique and fine pipes. Y.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine


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