Washington Square

Washington Square is a great read for anyone who wants to ponder some of life's big questions about relationships and love. So why is this novel so mesmerizing? It possesses a talent for posing tantalizingly unanswerable questions that are essential to life. What is acceptable to love about someone? Is it wrong to love them for things that they were born with, such as their wealth and status? And at what point can one be absolved from their commitment to loving someone when that person or things about them change? The questions go on, and the square remains intact; the four central characters of the novel all end up—to varying degrees—worse off after the whole ordeal, and one struggles to imagine how the situation could have ended any less tragically with its perfect combination of complex characters. - The Lawrentian