What Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, first published as a

serial in the Chap Book and (revised and abridged) in the New Review in 1897 and

then as a book later in the same year. The story of the sensitive daughter of

divorced and irresponsible parents, What Maisie Knew has great contemporary

relevance as an unflinching account of a wildly dysfunctional family. The book

is also a masterly technical achievement by James, as it follows the title

character from earliest childhood to precocious maturity.

— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.