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Sir Dominick Ferrand
Henry James
Book Overview:
“Levity” is not a word often applied to Henry James, but this story has about it an attractively lighthearted quality. It tells of Peter Baron, a poor, young struggling writer of adequate, if not transcendent, talent, who lives in a dreary London boarding house inhabited also by a mysteriously clairvoyant and beautiful young widow, with her small boy. When Baron buys himself a second-hand writing desk to stimulate the creative juices, he finds carefully hidden within it a cache of letters that appear to compromise a recently deceased statesman. The discovery and his struggle to handle the questions they pose ultimately change his life. Along the way he also discovers, as a fringe benefit, a talent for what Americans call Tin Pan Alley.
“Levity” is not a word often applied to Henry James, but this story has about it an attractively lighthearted quality. It tells of Peter Baron, a poor, young struggling writer of adequate, if not transcendent, talent, who lives in a dreary London boarding house inhabited also by a mysteriously clairvoyant and beautiful young widow, with her small boy. When Baron buys himself a second-hand writing desk to stimulate the creative juices, he finds carefully hidden within it a cache of letters that appear to compromise a recently deceased statesman. The discovery and his struggle to handle the questions they pose ultimately change his life. Along the way he also discovers, as a fringe benefit, a talent for what Americans call Tin Pan Alley.
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Community Reviews
Enjoyable story that begs the question is the public entitled to all the sordid details of the famous' lives? Is is appropriate to expose the foibles and failings of the dead, even if it appears no heirs exist to be hurt by the exposure? Is the profit made from sensationalism really worth it?
shrug... again, another story with an end which seems of little or no consequence to the reader. did it make better sense in James' time? who knows!
60 pages whereas the story could have been told in 30, but I expect that with Henry.
I foresaw the twist at the end but not how the story would actually end. Not buying it, so the plot is not really satisfactory to me.
The characters are the most interesting. I was sure James disliked his protagonist
positive story
Quizás no sea el mejor de los relatos de James, y tanto el desenlace como el misterio que esconde se va viendo venir desde lejos, pero es que simplemente el estilo y el modo de narrar del autor ya merece la pena el tiempo que le dedique.
In my quest to read Henry James, I chose as my fourth book this short novel. It was very straightforward and had a good story. The narrator finds some scandalous letters in a piece of furniture he buys, and the story revolves around those letters and a lady he meets in his apartments. I really liked