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 approval and her passion for the first man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonizing choice, and becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. Jame's 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. In his introduction, Brian Lee examines this early work of Henry James in the light of contemporary writers in both Europe and America, paying special attention to the characterization and the blending of social comedy with tragedy.