In many ways Henry James can be considered a forerunner of the modern “psychological
novel”. He is modern in the way he deals with the ambiguity behind the appearances, with his
characters making moral choices, but discovering their mistakes too late. The troubled
experiences he describes are nearly always seen through the eyes of a single character involved.
James broke with the Victorian tradition of fictional realism, in which the omniscient external
narrator recounted events and described characters which were in his control. He turned to the
internal experience of his narrator developing the limited point of view to stimulate active
participation on the part of the reader. He was something of a virtuoso in the manipulation of point
of view. In What Maisie Knew he presents a story of multiple adulteries exclusively through the
eyes of a child who is affected by, but largely uncomprehending of them.
