THE GOLDEN BOWL

The Golden Bowl is a 1904 novel by Henry James. Set in England this complex intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the major phase of Jamess career. The Golden Bowl explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses.. Maggie Verver a young American heiress and her widowed father Adam lead a life of wealth and refinement in London. They are both getting married: Maggie to Prince Amerigo an impoverished Italian aristocrat and Adam to the beautiful but penniless Charlotte Stant. But both father and daughter are unaware that their new conquests share a secret - one for which all concerned must pay the price. This story completes what critics have called the major phase of James?s career.