Henry James, What Maisie Knew

Pat Righelato (University of Reading)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1897

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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What Maisie Knew

is one of James's most carefully planned novels. In 1892, at a dinner party, he heard about an unusual divorce settlement in which the child was not, as was customary, assigned to one parent, but was to alternate between them. James set down the anecdote in his notebook, detailing that both parents married again, bringing step-parents into the equation. He pondered further on the idea for a short story on this topic from time to time in his notebooks, deciding the child should be a girl. By December 1895 he was elaborating the symmetries for a story of ten thousand words. He finally began to write what was to become a novel of ninety thousand words in 1896.

What Maisie Knew

first appeared in serial instalments in the Chicago

Chap Book

from 15 January to 1 August 1897 and…

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2088 words

Citation: Righelato, Pat. "What Maisie Knew". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 May 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8734, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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Henry James, What Maisie Knew

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