Five-minute digest
What Maisie Knew
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.
Top 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.
Children as weapons
The parents use Maisie to hurt each other. The novel is a sharp study of how divorce can harm a child.
A moral sense
Mrs. Wix wants Maisie to have a moral sense. The ending asks whether she has gained one.
Verified Quotes
“Everything had something behind it: life was like a long, long corridor with rows of closed doors.”
“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.”