6 h 23 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Who owns a masterpiece: the family that keeps it, the nation that loves it, or the buyer with the deepest pockets?
In Edwardian England, Lord Theign faces a tempting offer for a prized painting. Breckenridge Bender, a wealthy American collector, has the money to carry it across the Atlantic. In Henry James's short comic novel, a private sale raises a public question: what does a great picture mean beyond its price?
Around Lord Theign gather people with views he cannot ignore. His daughter, Lady Grace, has her own feelings about the painting and her future. His close friend Lady Sandgate offers advice, while Hugh Crimble brings a true eye for art to a circle preoccupied with money. Conversation becomes the ground where competing ideas of value meet.
What you’ll discover
- A painting beyond price Consider what a masterpiece means when family ownership meets a nation's sense of belonging.
- An offer worth weighing Follow Lord Theign as American wealth puts his prized English picture within a buyer's reach.
- An eye for art Meet Hugh Crimble, whose judgment offers something money alone cannot supply.
- A daughter with views Discover Lady Grace's own stake in the family, the painting, and her future.
- Comedy in conversation Enjoy a light social comedy where talk brings questions of wealth and taste into focus.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy sharp talk in drawing rooms, comedies about money and manners, and quarrels over art will find plenty here. It suits anyone curious about collectors, country houses and the fate of national treasures.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Great House Fills With Visitors
- A Collector Who Wants Business Before Tea
- A Proposal Comes With a Price Tag
- A Name Is Doubted and a Quarrel Begins
- Hugh Plans to Make Some Noise
- Father and Daughter Reach a Breaking Point
- The Outcry Grows and Theign Comes Home
- Who Owns a Masterpiece, Family or Nation
- How James Tells It Through Talk
Who’s who
- Lord TheignThe proud, courteous master of Dedborough Place, who owns the Sir Joshua and the Moretto and hates to be told how to use his property.
- Lady GraceHis younger daughter, serious and clear-eyed, who is pressed to marry and who comes to care more about saving the picture than pleasing her father.
- Hugh CrimbleA young, eager art expert who believes the Moretto is really a Mantovano and wants to keep it in England.
- Mr. Breckenridge BenderA big, genial American collector who wants an enormously valuable picture and is sure money can get it.
- Lord JohnThe Duchess's younger son, who wants to marry Lady Grace and acts as a go-between with Bender.
- Lady SandgateA handsome widow, close friend of Lord Theign, who owns a Lawrence portrait and is quietly in need of money.
- Lady ImberKitty, Theign's beautiful elder daughter, a widow with large gambling debts who relies on her father to pay them.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 23 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear La Protestation in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La Protestation
by Henry James · 1911
A rich American wants a Sir Joshua, and a young expert says a family's Moretto is something rarer.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Outcry is a comic novel by Henry James, published in 1911. It is set among the English upper class, in a world where great houses hold great paintings and the money to keep them has run low.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Great House Fills With Visitors
The story opens on a spring afternoon at Dedborough Place, the country house of Lord Theign. The park is open for a school feast, and hundreds of children from the village have gathered there. Lord Theign is out among them, giving advice at the top of his voice. Indoors the hall is quiet, with old portraits, tapestries and cabinets that have stood in place for two centuries. The butler, Banks, moves through it all with great dignity.
Lord John, the younger son of a duchess, is the first visitor we meet. He finds Lady Sandgate in the hall with a pink telegram in her hand. She is a handsome woman past forty, a frequent guest and a close friend of the master of the house. The two talk like people who read each other very well. Both of them, it soon appears, have come hoping to gain something.
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What is The Outcry by Henry James about?
It follows an English lord, Theign, who is tempted to sell a valuable portrait to a rich American collector, and the young art expert and daughter who try to stop him. Money, pride, marriage and public opinion are all tangled in the fight.
Who is Mr. Bender in The Outcry?
Mr. Breckenridge Bender is a wealthy American collector who is buying great pictures in England. He is friendly, direct and very sure of his money, and his wish for a grand and costly painting drives the plot.
What is a Mantovano in The Outcry?
A Mantovano is a work by a rare painter, of whom only seven examples are known in the story. Hugh Crimble thinks Theign's Moretto is really one, which would make it far more valuable and more worth keeping in England.
The author
Henry James
1843–1916 · American British novelist
Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. He settled in England in 1876 and became a British citizen in 1915. He wrote novels, stories, plays, and travel books. His works include Daisy Miller (1878), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and The Ambassadors (1903). He died in London in 1916.
More by Henry James
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