Chapter XXXII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Deception and Secrecy

  Maggie's internal struggle with her suspicions and her efforts to maintain appearances, as well as Fanny's hidden knowledge, highlight the theme of secrecy and deception.

• Appearance vs. Reality

  Maggie's outward affability at the dinner contrasts with her inner turmoil, and Charlotte's 'felicitous appearance' masks the underlying tension.

• Possession and Jealousy

  Maggie's envy of Charlotte's closeness to her father and her wish that Charlotte 'could only have been worse' reflect themes of possession and jealousy.

Characters to notice

• Maggie Verver

  Struggles with her suspicions about Charlotte and her father; visits the British Museum to explore the Prince's family history; displays unusual affability at the Assinghams' dinner; urgently summons Fanny Assingham.

• Prince Amerigo

  Left alone with Maggie in London; puzzled by her unusual affability at the dinner; remains unaware of the mystery behind her behavior.

• Fanny Assingham

  Hosts a dinner for Maggie and Amerigo; observes Maggie's changed demeanor; later receives an urgent summons from Maggie and senses a crisis.

• Charlotte Stant

  Mentioned as being at Fawns with Adam Verver; Maggie worries about Charlotte's influence and the 'ostensibly happy isolation' of the couple.

• Adam Verver

  At Fawns with Charlotte; Maggie feels his gaze from a distance and worries about the 'fine tissue of reassurance' woven by Charlotte.

• Colonel Assingham

  Mentioned as Fanny's husband; Fanny later recounts the events to him.

Key passages

• “If Maggie had not so firmly made up her mind never to say, either to her good friend or to anyone else, more than she meant about her father, she might have found herself betrayed into some such overflow during the week spent in London with her husband after the others had adjourned to Fawns for the summer.”

  Maggie's determination to keep her thoughts about her father to herself was tested during the week she spent alone with Amerigo in London, while the others were at Fawns.

  Maggie's internal conflict and her effort to maintain secrecy are introduced.

• “If Charlotte, while she was about it, could only have been worse !⁠—that idea Maggie fell to invoking instead of the idea that she might desirably have been better.”

  Maggie found herself wishing that Charlotte were more openly cruel, rather than being so deceptively kind and gentle.

  Maggie's complex feelings toward Charlotte reveal her jealousy and suspicion.

• “She showed an interest in their arrangements, an inquiring tenderness almost for their economies; so that her hostess not unnaturally, as they might have said, put it all down⁠—the tone and the freedom of which she set the example⁠—to the effect wrought in her afresh by one of the lessons learned, in the morning, at the altar of the past.”

  Maggie's attentive and generous behavior at the Assinghams' dinner was attributed by Fanny to the inspiring visit to the British Museum that morning.

  Maggie's outward cheerfulness is linked to her exploration of the Prince's heritage.

• “She knew on the spot, poor Fanny, as she was afterwards to declare to the Colonel, that her feared crisis had popped up as at the touch of a spring, that her impossible hour was before her.”

  Fanny immediately realized that the moment she had dreaded had arrived, and she would have to face the consequences of her long-held secrets.

  Fanny's sense of impending crisis is heightened by Maggie's urgent summons.