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What Maisie Knew

Name: What Maisie Knew
Author: Henry James

Henry James

1897 · 19th Century · Novel · English

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Abstract

Written: 1896-1897
Setting: Late Victorian era; London and Boulogne, France
Author: Henry James
Country: United States / England
Language: English
Genre: Psychological novel
Form: Novel in 31 chapters with an introduction
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Told through a child's eyes, but about divorce and adultery among adults.)

Premise. A London court splits a small girl between her quarrelling divorced parents, half a year each. Both treat her as a messenger of insults and neither asks what she herself wants, feels or needs.

Growth. The girl learns to hide what she understands. Around her, a governess weds her father, her mother weds a likable baronet, and the two step-parents become lovers, using visits to the child as a cover for meeting one another.

Neglect. Her natural parents drift off to new partners and forget her. Only an old-fashioned, poorly educated governess offers constant love and moral guidance, and she worries openly about what the child is learning from the grown-ups.

Choice. On the French coast the girl, now nearly adolescent, must decide whether to live with the lovers or with her governess. She proposes a bargain the stepfather cannot accept, and departs with the governess.

Craft. James renders a sordid adult tale entirely through a child's growing perceptions, a celebrated feat of narrative point of view. Readers must constantly infer what the girl sees but cannot yet name, which makes the book a fine exercise in careful reading for older students.

Main characters

Maisie Farange: A child who learns to watch and understand.
Beale Farange: A selfish, careless man.
Ida Farange: A vain, combative woman.
Sir Claude: Ida's charming second husband.
Mrs. Beale: Maisie's former governess, Beale's second wife.
Mrs. Wix: A poor, devoted woman with a strong moral sense.

Summary

What Maisie Knew, published in 1897, tells the story of a bitter divorce as it is seen and slowly understood by the child caught in the middle. When Beale and Ida Farange divorce, the court orders that their daughter Maisie, aged about six, spend six months of each year with each parent. Neither parent loves her for herself; each uses her as a weapon against the other, sending hostile messages through her. Maisie learns early that it is safest to say nothing and to seem stupid, developing an inner self that observes everything. Her first governess, the pretty Miss Overmore, moves with her to her father's house and soon becomes his second wife, the new Mrs. Beale. Her mother marries the charming, easy-going Sir Claude, whom Maisie adores. Before long both new marriages fail, and Sir Claude and Mrs. Beale, who first meet as Maisie's step-parents, fall in love, using the child as their excuse for meeting. Maisie's other governess, the shabby and old-fashioned Mrs. Wix, is the only adult who cares for her steadily; she is uneducated but has a fierce moral sense, and she wants Maisie to have one too. The parents drift away, Beale to an American countess and Ida to a series of lovers, and they effectively abandon their daughter. In the climax at Boulogne, Sir Claude proposes that Maisie live with him and Mrs. Beale, while Mrs. Wix insists that the child must not live with an unmarried couple. Maisie, now perhaps twelve or thirteen, is asked to choose. She offers to give up Mrs. Wix if Sir Claude will give up Mrs. Beale; when he cannot, she leaves with Mrs. Wix. James's achievement is to show adult selfishness through a child's growing intelligence, without letting Maisie lose her innocence of heart. The adult subject matter suits it to grades 10-12.

Virtues in this work

Fortitude: Maisie endures neglect and being passed between selfish adults without growing bitter.
Charity: Mrs. Wix loves Maisie when no one else does.

Plot or Argument

The divorce
Maisie is shuttled between her parents, who use her to carry insults.
New marriages
Her governess marries her father; her mother marries Sir Claude; the step-parents meet through Maisie.
Abandonment
The parents lose interest in Maisie; Mrs. Wix becomes her protector.
Boulogne
Maisie must choose between Sir Claude with Mrs. Beale and Mrs. Wix, and chooses Mrs. Wix.

Characters

Maisie Farange, protagonist
A child who learns to watch and understand.
Beale Farange, father
A selfish, careless man.
Ida Farange, mother
A vain, combative woman.
Sir Claude, stepfather
Ida's charming second husband.
Mrs. Beale, stepmother
Maisie's former governess, Beale's second wife.
Mrs. Wix, governess
A poor, devoted woman with a strong moral sense.

Lessons

A child's view
James tells an adult story through what a child perceives. Readers must work out what Maisie sees but cannot yet name.
- What does Maisie understand that the adults think she misses?
- Why does she pretend to be stupid?
- How does her understanding grow?
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Children as weapons
The parents use Maisie to hurt each other. The novel is a sharp study of how divorce can harm a child.
- How do Beale and Ida use Maisie?
- Who truly cares for her?
- What does she need most?
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A moral sense
Mrs. Wix wants Maisie to have a moral sense. The ending asks whether she has gained one.
- What does Mrs. Wix mean by a moral sense?
- Why does Maisie make her final offer?
- Is her choice wise?
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- Washington Square, Lesson: Sentimentality is not sympathy
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Context

Divorce was becoming more common in late-Victorian England, and James turned a story he had heard about divided custody into a novel.

Composition

Serialized in The Chap-Book and The New Review in 1897 and published as a book that year.

Reception

Admired for its technique; in the preface to the New York Edition James described Maisie's 'wonder' as the light by which the sordid story is seen.

Childhood Family Marriage Innocence / Experience Virtue Ethics

Comparisons

Daisy Miller
Another James study of a young girl misjudged by her elders.
Great Expectations
Dickens also shows a child shaped by careless adults.

Quotes

“Everything had something behind it: life was like a long, long corridor with rows of closed doors.”

— Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chapter V (Project Gutenberg #7118).Quote card

Daisy Miller, Part II (closing pages)
I was booked to make a mistake. I have lived too long in foreign parts Winterbourne's admission to his aunt after Daisy's death, a rare moment of self-knowledge.
The Law, Closing paragraph
make trial of liberty--of liberty, which is an act of faith in God and in His work. The last words of the pamphlet, after the long survey of systems imposed by legislators.
First Inaugural Address, Inaugural address, paragraph on defense
a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe Jackson's confidence in the citizen militia over standing armies.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius, Book II, ch. II
this assuredly results from the baseness of those who have interpreted our religion to accord with indolence and ease rather than with valour. After contrasting ancient religion's honour for worldly glory with Christianity's honour for humility, Machiavelli lays the blame for modern weakness on how the faith has been interpreted.
The Hiding Place, Medical lens
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“She had a new feeling, the feeling of danger; on which a new remedy rose to meet it, the idea of an inner self or, in other words, of concealment.”

— Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chapter II (Project Gutenberg #7118).Quote card

The Nose, Part II
Certainly one could replace it at once, but I assure you the remedy would be worse than the disease. The doctor declines to reattach the nose.
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter V: On wages
Labour, like all other things which are purchased and sold, and which may be increased or diminished in quantity, has its natural and its market price. The opening of the chapter on wages, where Ricardo distinguishes the natural price of labour, fixed by the cost of the labourer's subsistence, from the market price set by supply and demand.
The Prince and the Pauper, Chapter XVII
Yokel tells how his mother, who nursed the sick, was burned as a witch when a patient died, and how his children starved.
The Overcoat, The Cloak
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De Monarchia (with R. W. Church's essay on Dante), Full Text
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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The court's custody arrangement.
Maisie's decision to seem stupid.
How Sir Claude and Mrs. Beale meet.
Mrs. Wix's question about moral sense.
The final choice at Boulogne.

Key terms and names

Custody: The legal right to care for a child.
Governess: A woman employed to teach children at home.
Irony: A gap between what is said or seen and what is true.
Step-parent: The husband or wife of a child's parent by a later marriage.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension How is Maisie's time divided at the start?
Comprehension Who is Mrs. Wix, and what does she want for Maisie?
Comprehension What happens at Boulogne?
Interpretation Why does Maisie offer to give up Mrs. Wix?
Interpretation Does Maisie lose her innocence?
Big Question What do children need from the adults around them?

Faith Connections

Matthew 18:6 (Scripture)
Woe to those who cause a little one to stumble; the adults misuse Maisie.
Psalm 27:10 (Scripture)
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Selfish adults corrupt what they touch, but a child's clear sight can still find a moral path; Maisie's final choice shows understanding growing out of innocence.

Rhetorical device: restricted point of view. Events are filtered through Maisie's perceptions, so readers must interpret what she only half grasps.

Debate: Resolved: that Maisie made the right choice at Boulogne.

Memory Work

Everything had something behind it: life was like a long, long corridor with rows of closed doors.
Chapter V. An image of a child surrounded by adult secrets.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Who is the only true parent in What Maisie Knew? Defend your answer.

Comparison with Daisy Miller: Compare Maisie with Daisy Miller as young people judged by adults.

Creative Prompts

Essay
How does Maisie's understanding of the adults change from beginning to end?
Dialogue
Write a scene from Mrs. Wix's point of view.
Classroom
Find three moments where the reader understands more than Maisie, and explain how James signals it.