The Spoils of Poynton

The Spoils of Poynton

First UK edition
Author Henry James
Country United Kingdom, United States
Language English
Publisher William Heinemann, London
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston
Publication date
 Heinemann: 6-Feb-1897
Houghton: 13-Feb-1897
Media type Print (Serial)
Pages Heinemann: 286 pp
Houghton: 323 pp

The Spoils of Poynton is a novel by Henry James, first published under the title The Old Things as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1896 and then as a book in 1897. This novel describes the struggle between Mrs. Gereth, a widow of impeccable taste and iron will, and her son Owen over a houseful of precious antique furniture. The story is largely told from the viewpoint of Fleda Vetch, a young woman in love with Owen but sympathetic to Mrs. Gereth's anguish over losing the antiques she patiently collected.

Plot summary

Widow Adela Gereth tells the sensitive and tasteful Fleda Vetch that she's afraid her son Owen will marry the coarse Mona Brigstock. Owen soon becomes engaged to Mona and wants to take over Poynton, the family home filled with Mrs. Gereth's carefully collected furniture and other art objects. He would like Fleda to help get his mother to leave the house with a minimum of fuss.

Mrs. Gereth moves to Ricks, the smaller family house. Fleda visits the house and is unhappy that Mrs. Gereth has furnished it with the best pieces from Poynton. Owen says that Mona is angry with the "theft" of the valuable heirlooms. Meanwhile, Owen is becoming more attracted to Fleda instead of the crude Mona and eventually declares his love for her. Fleda insists that he honor his engagement to Mona unless she breaks it off.

Mrs. Gereth finally returns the fine furniture to Poynton. After a few days Owen and Mona are reported to be married, and they go abroad. Fleda gets a letter from Owen asking her to select any one piece from Poynton as hers to keep. Fleda goes to Poynton but finds it completely consumed by fire.

Main themes

This tightly constructed novel treats several themes common throughout James' work. Fleda Vetch is one of James' typically sensitive central characters, very scrupulous and thus sometimes victimized by the more decisive if less fastidious people around her. Mrs. Gereth is a memorable example of James' unprincipled dominators, who try to bulldoze their way over other people. Disregarding Fleda's scruples, she attempts to force a marriage between Owen and Fleda because she believes it will give her a better chance to retain the "spoils" she so lovingly collected.

Mrs. Gereth also shows the acquisitive collector's mania that James often, though not always, saw as an insidious form of corruption. Owen is a brainless youth of no great harm, though he's easily and obviously confused. James plays Mona mostly for laughs as a bumptious barbarian, though she can turn nasty over acquiring what is due to her.

Literary significance and criticism

Although The Spoils of Poynton is rarely considered one of James' greatest works, most critics have enjoyed the entertaining and well-paced conflict in the novel. The poetic justice of the book's conclusion has also been widely accepted as the best way to finish the struggle. James' portrayal of Mrs. Gereth has received particular acclaim. She sometimes seems almost unbalanced in her passionate devotion to her fine furniture and art objects: "There isn’t one of them I don’t know and love—yes, as one remembers and cherishes the happiest moments of one’s life. Blindfold, in the dark, with the brush of a finger, I could tell one from another. They’re living things to me; they know me, they return the touch of my hand."

Fleda Vetch has earned most critics' sympathy for steering the right course through an almost impossible situation. And there are the usual touches of understated but much-appreciated humor, as when Mrs. Gereth throws one of the Brigstocks' tacky magazines out the door at Mona, and the coarse but athletic girl deftly snares it on the fly. "Good catch!" is Owen's reaction. However, some critics, among them William Veeder, argue that Owen ultimately makes a stronger choice in Mona, because Fleda is too manipulative and mentally unsound a character.

Adaptations

In 1970, the BBC produced a highly regarded 4-part television program based on the book, starring Gemma Jones and Ian Ogilvy. This was broadcast in the U.S. by PBS in 1971 as part of the first season of Masterpiece Theatre.

Cultural references

In the 2004 Booker Prize–winning novel The Line of Beauty, written by Alan Hollinghurst, two of the main characters attempt to get financing for a film production of the story; this plot point is also included in the 2006 three-part BBC Two serial of the same name, adapted for television by Andrew Davies.

In the novel In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (novelist), the character of Kate Heron fondly recalls reading The Spoils of Poynton with her late husband and friends Charles and Dorothea. They called Lady Asperley, a mutual friend, The Spoils of Poynton because her obsession with objects reminded them of Mrs. Gereth.

Notes

    References

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