Serendipity Talk: Why Read (or Reread) Henry James’s Most Difficult Novel, The Golden Bowl?

This brief talk will try to arouse interest in this not easily-read novel of James’s "late" period, by exploring the strange, even perverse, relationship of a wealthy father and daughter who both marry but who never succeed in separating themselves from one another, thus all but creating the conditions for their own betrayal— the adultery—at the heart of the novel.

Michael W. Farrell is a former chair of the English department at Georgetown Preparatory School and an appellate judge for 30 years. He is a lifelong reader of Henry James.