Watch and Ward

1878 novel by Henry James

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Watch and Ward

First edition

Author| Henry James
Language| English
Publisher| Houghton, Osgood and Company, Boston

Publication date

| 29 May 1878
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (serial)
Pages| 219

Watch and Ward is a short novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1871 and later as a book in 1878. This was James' first novel, though he virtually disowned the book later in life. James later called Roderick Hudson (1875) his first novel instead of Watch and Ward.

## Plot summary[edit]

Wealthy and leisured Roger Lawrence adopts twelve-year-old Nora Lambert after her father kills himself in the hotel room next to Lawrence's. Roger had refused financial assistance to the man, and he feels remorse. Nora is not a pretty child but she soon starts to develop, as does Roger's idea of eventually marrying her.

Unfortunately for Roger, once Nora matures into a beautiful young woman, she is attracted to two other men: worthless George Fenton and the somewhat hypocritical minister, Hubert Lawrence (Roger's cousin). After various adventures Nora winds up in the clutches of Fenton in New York City, but Roger comes to her rescue. Roger and Nora marry in a conventional happy ending.

## Key themes[edit]

The melodramatic doings in Watch and Ward probably caused James some embarrassment in later years, and it's easy to see why he disowned the book and spoke of Roderick Hudson as his first novel. Still, many critics have pointed out that melodrama always held a certain fascination for James. Watch and Ward is only a particularly gauche example.

James' technique is primitive at such an early stage of his career. Nora's development into the beautiful swan from the ugly duckling is told rather than shown, and Fenton is a stock villain of the most routine kind. Still, hints of the master-to-be are apparent from the well-described scenes of New York low life and the charm that Nora eventually displays.

A humorous side note is some of the erotic language that James slips into the novel. At one point Roger "caught himself wondering whether, at the worst, a little precursory love-making would do any harm. The ground might be gently tickled to receive his own sowing; the petals of the young girl's nature, playfully forced apart, would leave the golden heart of the flower but the more accessible to his own vertical rays." William James and William Dean Howells were uncomfortable with such imagery, though Henry might have enjoyed their uneasiness.

## Critical evaluation[edit]

Critics have almost unanimously agreed with James' disowning of Watch and Ward as his first novel in favor of the infinitely more substantial and impressive Roderick Hudson. While Nora gets kudos as a pleasant enough ingénue, the other characters are forgettable and the plot is too often silly.

James did revise Watch and Ward for book publication in 1878, so he wasn't completely ashamed of it at that point in his career. But he dropped the novel from his 1883 collective edition and soon seemed to want to forget about it completely.

## References[edit]

* The Novels of Henry James by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1983) ISBN 0-8044-2959-6
* The Novels of Henry James by Oscar Cargill (New York: Macmillan Co., 1961)

## External links[edit]

* Works related to Watch and Ward at Wikisource
* Media related to Watch and Ward at Wikimedia Commons
*   * Watch and Ward at Project Gutenberg
* Original magazine publication of Watch and Ward (1871)
* Variorum edition of 1871 magazine and 1878 book versions of Watch and Ward

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Henry James

Bibliography

Novels|

* Watch and Ward (1871)
* Roderick Hudson (1875)
* The American (1877)
* The Europeans (1878)
* Confidence (1879)
* Washington Square (1880)
* The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
* The Bostonians (1886)
* The Princess Casamassima (1886)
* The Reverberator (1888)
* The Tragic Muse (1890)
* The Other House (1896)
* The Spoils of Poynton (1897)
* What Maisie Knew (1897)
* The Awkward Age (1899)
* The Sacred Fount (1901)
* The Wings of the Dove (1902)
* The Ambassadors (1903)
* The Golden Bowl (1904)
* The Outcry (1911)
* The Ivory Tower (1917)
* The Sense of the Past (1917)

Novellas|

* Madame de Mauves (1874)
* Daisy Miller (1878)
* The Aspern Papers (1888)
* The Turn of the Screw (1898)
* The Beast in the Jungle (1903)

Plays|

* Theatricals (1894)
* Theatricals: Second Series (1895)
* Guy Domville (1895)

Non-fiction|

* French Poets and Novelists (1878)
* Hawthorne (1879)
* A Little Tour in France (1884)
* Partial Portraits (1888)
* Essays in London and Elsewhere (1893)
* Picture and Text (1893)
* William Wetmore Story and His Friends (1903)
* English Hours (1905)
* The American Scene (1907)
* Italian Hours (1909)
* A Small Boy and Others (1913)
* Notes on Novelists (1914)
* Notes of a Son and Brother (1914)
* Notebooks
* The Middle Years (1917)

Related|

* Henry James Sr. (father)
* William James (brother)
* Alice James (sister)
* Lamb House
* New York Edition

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