When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor her father
convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter decides to put a stop to
their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father's love and approval and her passion
for the first man who has ever declared his love for her Catherine faces an agonising dilemma
and becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James'
masterly novel deftly interweaves the public and private faces of nineteenth-century New York
society it is also a deeply moving study of innocence destroyed.
