What Maisie Knew - Portrait of a Child
After his disastrous shot at playwriting, which occupied him for a few years, Henry James finally returned to what he knew best: writing novels. What Maisie Knew (1897) is perhaps the finest of James' middle period books, a relatively simple story about a young girl of seven or eight who endures her parents' acrimonious divorce and a lot else besides.
There are said to be James cultists who can spot the exact point in What Maisie Knew when the Master, suffering from a wrist injury, gave up writing his tale himself and began dictating it to a male se…
