A London Life: A Library of America eBook Classic

Henry James

Sep 2018 · Library of America

About this ebook

One of the masterworks of Henry James's middle phase, the novella A London Life first appeared in serial form in Scribner's Magazine in the summer of 1888. As the story opens, Laura Wing, a young American woman, is living with her sister Selina and brother-in-law Lionel Berrington at Mellows, the Berrington family estate outside London, where she has a front-row seat for marital discord and its baleful effects on the couple's children. As Laura struggles to come to terms with her sister's possible infidelity, and its ramifications for her own social standing, the scene moves to London, where James stages an unforgettable portrait of a marriage's final dissolution. For literary critic Edward Wagenknecht, Laura Wing is one of James's essential heroines: "there is no character is his books--not even Isabel Archer, not even Fleda Vetch--to whom James commits himself more unreservedly."

About the author

Henry James (1843-1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. His many works include Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Princess Casamassima (1886), The Aspern Papers (1888), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and three large novels of the new century, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). He died in London in February 1916.