Washington Square

This work is certainly a period piece, taking place in late-nineteenth-century New York, and its themes of morality, dignity, and responsibility place it outside the realm of most fiction being written today. Still, this story of a woman, Catherine Sloper, choosing her fiancée over her father despite the terrible consequences is absorbing, and ranks as one of the author's best efforts. Lorna Raver doesn't just read this book; she inhabits it. Her voice is clear and includes a hint of huskiness that serves her well when creating male characters. It also allows her to alter her pitch ever so slightly to perfectly capture the females. Raver uses pauses for dramatic effect and narrates as though every word deserves its place on the page. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine


This 1880 novel takes place in the New York society familiar to James from his childhood and is from the same period in his life that produced PORTRAIT OF A LADY. Here too he is concerned with the judgment, and fate, of a sheltered young lady of means who may not understand the true motives of the man who courts her. Catherine Sloper is the unexceptional, overdressed only child of Dr. Austin Sloper, who cannot believe that the attractive and shiny young Morris Townsend could be drawn by his daughter's charms alone, such as they are--and Dr. Sloper is a man of action. It's James at the top of his form, and Lloyd James reads effectively, if with an odd lack of energy. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine