Washington Square

First published in 1880, this novel follows Catherine Sloper, the quiet daughter of a prosperous New York doctor, in the Washington Square neighborhood around the 1840s. Morris Townsend, handsome and without a career, courts her; Dr Sloper decides the man wants only the girl's inheritance and forbids an engagement. Catherine's widowed aunt Lavinia Penniman encourages secret meetings. The drama is a contest of wills among a sarcastic father, a daughter who is slow to disobey, and a suitor whose affection cannot be separated from money. Years pass and the house becomes a place of withheld consent. The book is a novel of manners and domestic power, not a history of the square.

Bound in light green linen with an illustrative design in green, white and brown by Lamb. Yellow-green endleaves. Grey and white slipcase.