First serialized in 1880 in Harper's New Monthly and Cornhill magazines in 1880, Washington Square is one of Henry James' most famous and accessible novels. In 1881, Washington Square was published in novel form, the same year that Portrait of a Lady was published. Unlike much of Henry James' work, such as Daisy Miller or The Ambassadors, Washington Square is a thoroughly American novel: the characters are American as the setting. Indeed, Washington Square is the neighborhood in which Henry James was born.
The novel focuses on a particular American neighborhood during a precise historical period. Nonetheless, the fact remains that Henry James did not write Washington Square from the...