What Maisie Knew
James, Henry / Poole, Adrian (Reader in English and Comparative Literature, and Fellow, Reader in English and Comparative Literature, and Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge)
The child of violently divorced parents, Maisie Farange opens her eyes on a distinctly modern world. Mothers and fathers keep changing their partners and names, while she herself becomes the pretext for all sorts of adult sexual intrigue.
The novel traces the course of her education and ends with the death of her childhood. It is one of James's finest studies of lost innocence.