Characters:
- Lambert Strether
- Chad Newsome
- Miss Barrace
- Little John Bilham
- Madame de Vionnet
- Sarah Pocock
- Waymarsh
- Maria Gostrey
Summary:
- Mr. Lambert Strether has been sent by Mrs. Newsome to Europe in order to bring Chad Newsome, who has been in Paris for a long time, home.
- In Paris, Strether enjoys spending time with Chad's young friends and is charmed by the Countess, Madame de Vionnet, a married woman with whom Chad has begun a relationship.
- Strether fails to convince Chad to return and Mrs. Newsome sends her daughter, Sarah Pocock, and her husband and sister-in-law, Mamie Pocock, instead. Sarah manages to get Chad to get himself ready to leave Paris. Chad is supposed to return, marry Mamie Pocock, and continue the family business.
- Strether does not wish to condemn Chad to the same fate of living a miserable life but he has no choice. He tries to convince Chad to stay even though he is likely to lose his job with the Newsomes. In the end, Strether's only solace is knowing that he has been true to his ideals and has gained nothing for himself.
The Beast in the Jungle
Characters:
- John Marcher
- May Bartram
Summary:
- John Marcher is reacquainted with May Bartram, a woman he knew ten years earlier and who knows his odd secret - that Marcher is seized with the belief that his life is to be defined by some catastrophic or spectacular event, lying in wait for him like a "beast in the jungle."
- Because of this, Marcher believes he is precluded from marrying so that he does not subject his wife to his "spectacular fate".
- As he sits idly by and allows the best years of his life to pass, the takes May down as well, until the denouement wherein he learns that the greatest misfortune of his life was to throw it away and to ignore the love of a good woman based upon his preposterous sense of foreboding.
Golden Bowl
Characters:
- Adam Verver
- Maggie
- Prince Amerigo
- Charlotte Stant
Summary:
- Adam Verver, an American billionaire in London, dotes on his daughter Maggie, an innocent abroad.
- An impecunious Italian, Prince Amerigo, marries her even though her best friend, Charlotte Stant, is his lover.
- Maggie does not know that Charlotte and Amerigo know each other. Charlotte and Amerigo go shopping together for a wedding present for Maggie, but Amerigo eventually refuses to buy an antique bowl suggested by the shopkeeper because he thinks it is flawed.
- Maggie interests her widowed father in Charlotte, and he proposes to Charlotte.
- Maggie eventually begins to suspect Amerigo and Charlotte. Maggie buys the bowl but the shopkeeper visits Maggie and confesses to overcharging her. At Maggie's home, he sees photographs of Amerigo and Charlotte and he tells Maggie of the pair's shopping trip on the eve of her marriage.
- Maggie confronts Amerigo and begins a secret campaign to separate the Prince and Charlotte while never letting her father know of their affair. She gradually persuades her father to return to America with his wife.
Portrait of a Lady
Characters:
- Isabel Archer
- Gilbert Osmond
- Madame Serena Merle
- Lord Warburton
- Henrietta Stackpole
- Ralph Touchett
- Edward Rosier
- Caspar Goodwood
Summary:
- story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer who "affronts her destiny"
- she inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of a scheme by two American expatriates
The Aspern Papers
Characters:
- Jeffrey Aspern
- Juliana Bordereau
- Miss Tina
Summary:
- a nameless narrator goes to Venice to locate Juliana Bordereau, an old lover of Jeffrey Aspern, a famous and now dead American poet
- he presents himself to the old woman as a prospective lodger and is prepared to court her niece Miss Tina in the hopes of getting a look at some of Aspern's letters and papers kept by Juliana
- when Juliana falls ill, the narrator ventures into her room and is caught by her as he is about to rifle her desk for letters. Juliana calls the narrator a "publishing scoundrel" and collapses.
- The narrator flees. When he returns, Juliana is dead. Miss Tina hints that he can have the letters if he marries her.
- The narrator flees again, but he changes his mind. When he returns, Miss Tina tells him she has burnt the letters.
Daisy Miller
Characters:
- Daisy Miller
- Winterbourne
- Mrs. Costello
- Mrs. Walker
Summary:
- Daisy Miller and Winterbourne meet in Switzerland. Daisy is delighted with Europe, especially the high society she wishes to enter.
- Winterbourne continues his pursuit of Daisy despite the disapproval of his aunt Mrs. Costello.
- In Rome, Winterbourne and Daisy meet unexpectedly in the parlor of Mrs. Walker, a fellow American. Daisy is undeterred by the open disapprobation of the other Americans in Rome.
- Winterbourne sees Daisy walking through the Colosseum and warns her of "Roman Fever", but she ignores him. She fals ill, and dies a few days later.
The Turn of the Screw
Characters:
- Flora
- Miles
- Miss Jessel
- Quint
Summary:
- An unnamed narrator listens to a manuscript read by a male friend from a former governess whom the latter claimed to know and who is now dead.
- A young governess is hired by a man who is responsible for his niece and nephew after the death of their parents.
- Miles is at a boarding school whereas Flora is living at his country home where she is cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose.
- The governess is given full charge of the children and she begins her duties at her employer's house, but she begins to see and hear strange things.
- She learns that her predecessor, Miss Jessel, and her lover Quint, died under curious circumstance and becomes convinced that the pair are somehow using the children to continue their relationship from beyond the grave.
- Flora runs away from the house while Miles is playing music for the governess. Mrs. Grose and the governess find Flora in a clearing in the wood and the governess is convinced that she has been talking to Miss Jessel.
- Flora admits this and demands never to see the governess again. Mrs. Grose takes Flora away to her uncle, leaving the governess with Miles. That night, the ghost of Quint appears at the window and the governess shields Miles. The governess tells him he is no longer under the control of the ghost and finds that Miles has died in her arms.
The Art of Fiction
- argues against rigid proscriptions of the novelist's choice of subject and method of treatment
- the widest possible freedom in content and approach would help ensure narrative fiction's continued vitality
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