Sisters Come Second
The LRB Podcast
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The Struggle Between Henry James and Thomas Mann
Second sons mark you for life if you're the second son in a family of five. Both James and Mann had an older brother who was also a successful writer. The only child makes Catherine Sloper vulnerable to her father's bullying, but gives her power as she is alone in the rooms. And so too, Henry James in a novel like Washington Square,. it really depends on her being an only child in that house.
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