The Awkward Age: A Fiction and Literature Classic By Henry James! AAA+++

Originally conceived as a brief, light story about the complications created in her family's social set by a young girl coming of age, the novel expands into a general treatment of decadence and corruption in English fin de siècle life. James presents the novel almost entirely in dialogue, an experiment that adds to the immediacy of the scenes but also creates serious ambiguities about characters and their motives.