Washington Square is a novel written in 1880 by Henry James about a father's attempts to thwart a romance between his naïve daughter and the man he believes wishes to marry her for her money.
Although never disclosed directly to Catherine, Doctor Sloper does not hold his daughter's quiet, reserved personality or plain appearance in high regard, finding these a disappointing contrast with her deceased mother.
Catherine is smitten by the handsome, attractive and charming Morris, who has wasted his own relatively modest inheritance on wild living, and is now impecunious but claims to be a changed man.
After Dr. Sloper's death, the ever-interfering Aunt Penniman suddenly orchestrates, without permission, a meeting between Catherine and the now middle-aged but still handsome Morris Townsend, who has reappeared in New York, having enjoyed little financial success in life and having married in Europe and been widowed.
[5] Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted the novel for the stage as The Heiress, originally performed on Broadway in 1947 with Wendy Hiller as Catherine and Basil Rathbone as Dr. Sloper, and revived a number of times since.
[6] The play was adapted for film in 1949, and starred Olivia de Havilland as Catherine, Ralph Richardson as Dr. Sloper, and Montgomery Clift as Morris.
[7] In 1972, Mexican director Jose Luis Ibañez made a movie version of this novel titled Victoria (based on his own adaptation with Jorge Font) and starred Julissa, Enrique Alvarez Félix, Guillermo Murray and Rita Macedo.
It starred Maricel Soriano as Adela (Catherine), Richard Gomez as David Javier (Morris Townsend), Eddie Gutierrez as Dr. Sevilla (Dr. Sloper) and Charito Solis as Tia Paula (Aunt Lavinia).
Polish director Agnieszka Holland made Washington Square in 1997, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney, and Ben Chaplin, with Maggie Smith as Mrs. Penniman.
[11][12] American author Hanya Yanagihara's 2022 novel To Paradise was heavily influenced by Washington Square with the first section taking its title from the novel and loosely following the same setup though re-imagined in an 1890s New York where same-sex marriage is legal.