Wheel of Time
Wheel of Time
Fanny Knocker is unflinchingly, almost admirably plain. When she's introduced to the devastatingly handsome but utterly impoverished younger son of a decaying aristocratic family, the stage is set for a very particular kind of social theater. Henry James turns his laser gaze on the machinery of courtship, class aspiration, and the desperate performances people give when love and money collide. What unfolds is sharp, uncomfortable, and wickedly funny: a story about what people are willing to overlook, pretend not to see, and ultimately believe about themselves. The wheel of time in question is the relentless turning of social fortunes, the way the past shapes (and traps) the present, and the particular blindnesses we cultivate to survive our own circumstances. James at his most incisive, stripping away the romance to reveal the calculations beneath.
X-Ray
