Henry James

Georgina's Reasons Henry James

Georgina is a short story. It tells us of a couple that does not seem to have worked well as a couple. The beautiful, cool and seemingly prim Georgina Gressie secretly marries the penniless navy lieutenant Raymond Benyon (Joachim Bissmeier) against the wishes of her rich parents in New York and makes him swear to never tell anyone about this marriage unless she allows him to do so. This promise, initially given without any reflection or suspicion, has profound and far-reaching consequences: Georgina increasingly withdraws from her bewildered husband, entrusts her child during a trip to Europe to an Italian woman and does everything to ignore her marriage. Several years later, Raymond discovers by chance that "his" wife Georgina has since re-married. Her new husband is a relative of Kate, a woman he had met in Italy and with whom he share a deep affection. Nothing would seem more logical and simpler to him now than to demand from Georgina that she revoke his promise to remain silent and to agree to a divorce. She refuses. And Benyon can't bring it upon himself to enter into bigamy with his new love. He waits for his marriage with Georgina to be perhaps ended by death....