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What Maisie Knew
by Henry James
Category: Fiction
Status: Available
Source: Public Domain — Project Gutenberg
About This Book
"What Maisie Knew" by Henry James is a novel written during the late 19th century. The story centers around a young girl named Maisie Farange, caught in the tumultuous aftermath of her parents' bitter divorce. As they battle over custody, she becomes a pawn in their ongoing conflicts, revealing the complexities of adult relationships through a child’s innocent perspective. The opening of the novel introduces us to a courtroom scene where the divorce and custody arrangements of Maisie are being discussed. The narrative highlights the inappropriate behaviors and attitudes of both parents, particularly as they prepare to share their daughter in a highly unconventional arrangement. Ms. Farange's mother is depicted as vain and resentful, while her father, Beale, is shown to be careless and dismissive. Maisie's sensitivity shines through as she seeks to navigate the emotional chaos inflicted upon her by her parents, baffled by their conflicting views. Though caught in the midst of adult grievances, she remains naive about the true nature of her situation, which foreshadows her journey of growing awareness and understanding in a world fraught with adult contradictions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About This Edition
This edition of What Maisie Knew by Henry James is catalogued on Libreya under Fiction and runs approximately 94,894 words — about 474 minutes of reading at an average pace. It is sourced from Project Gutenberg, the world's oldest digital library of public domain literature, founded in 1971 by Michael Hart, and every text on Libreya has been verified to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. You can view the original Project Gutenberg edition here.
On Libreya, the text has been carefully formatted for comfortable reading on any screen — with consistent chapter navigation, adjustable font sizes, and four reading themes: light, sepia, dark, and night mode. Your reading position is saved automatically when you sign in, so you can pick up exactly where you left off across any device. The original text has not been altered in any way; what you read here is the same work as it appeared in its original published form.
About Classic Fiction
Classic fiction represents the highest achievements of literary imagination. The novels in this genre have shaped how generations of readers understand human nature, society, and the fundamental questions of existence. Reading 19th and early 20th-century novels offers far more than historical interest: these stories explore love, ambition, morality, and identity with an insight that remains startlingly relevant today. Authors like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Austen, Hardy, and Dickens wrote for readers much like us — people trying to make sense of a complicated world — and their observations on class, relationships, power, and conscience carry across centuries with barely diminished force. Classic fiction is also where the novel as an art form reached some of its greatest heights: innovative narrative structures, deeply realized characters, and prose styles that reward slow, attentive reading. These are not museum pieces. They are living works that continue to be discussed, adapted, and argued over because they capture something essential and enduring about human experience.
