Story summary
Samenvatting van Een Londens leven en andere verhalen
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A girl on a country estate watches her sister drift toward a scandal that could ruin them both.
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Een Londens leven en andere verhalen in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 6 h 25 min5 h 5 min fast, 7 h 40 min slow
- Lengte
- 91.900 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1889by Henry James
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Een Londens leven en andere verhalen in short
Taken together, the four tales study people who live by appearances. A young woman watches her sister's marriage fail and must choose between loyalty and safety. A ship full of gossips follows a girl on her way to a wedding.
What Een Londens leven en andere verhalen is about
What would you do if the sister who took you in were slowly ruining the family name, and you ate at her table every day? That is the trap that closes around Laura Wing, a penniless American girl in an English country house. Her story opens A London Life, and Other Tales by Henry James, a book of four stories about people who look respectable and hide something underneath.
James, an American who made his home in England, watched both countries closely. What joins the tales is the gap between what people say and what they know. You will meet a wife who swears to a lie, a girl watched by a whole ship, and a mother whose kindness hides a plan.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who love sharp dinner table talk and keen social observation will enjoy these tales of Americans and English people. They also suit readers curious about how family, money, and manners shape private choices.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Laura Wing walks into a house of secrets
Laura Wing walks through the park to Plash, the dower house where old Mrs. Berrington lives. She has been in England just over a year, and she has learned things she never wished to know.
Laura's parents are dead, and her father lost his money. She lives in her brother-in-law's house and pays only for her clothes. Her sister Selina is beautiful, restless, and hardly ever at home. The household runs on telegrams, horses, and visitors, and nobody says what the messages mean.
At Plash, the old lady says aloud what Laura fears. She calls Selina flighty and tells Laura to marry and leave the house. Back at Mellows, Lionel says that Selina has gone to Paris with a lady of poor reputation. He believes she has a lover, he means to seek a divorce, and he wants Laura to stand beside him as a witness. To agree is to turn against the sister she loves. Dependence makes every loyalty cost something.
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Selina swears an oath that Laura cannot believe
Selina returns from Paris with the marks of her dressmaker all over her.
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A Boston night sends a girl to sea
The second tale begins on a sweltering August night in Boston.
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Gossip and moonlight crowd the deck
The Patagonia is slow, roomy, and calm, and the sea is blue and quiet.
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At a country house dinner, Oliver Lyon meets two surprises
The third tale begins with a train half an hour late.
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Sir David names the Colonel's one weakness
While Lyon paints him, Sir David calls the Colonel a thumping liar.
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Cousin Maria builds a brilliant life in Paris
The last tale begins in a New York hotel.
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Polite surfaces hide private cruelty
Every tale sets a calm, well-mannered scene beside something that does not fit.
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Money and marriage shape every woman's choice
Women in these tales have few ways to live.
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How James tells four different kinds of story
A London Life follows Laura closely, and the narrator sometimes steps in to speak to the reader about her weakness.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Laura Wing A penniless young American living in her sister's English house, she loves Selina but dreads the scandal that is coming.
- Selina Berrington Laura's beautiful, restless older sister, who wants pleasure and freedom and lies easily to keep both.
- Grace Mavis A proud, silent Boston girl sailing to Liverpool to marry a man she has been engaged to for years.
- Jasper Nettlepoint A handsome, selfish young traveler who sails on a whim and spends the voyage at Grace's side.
- Oliver Lyon A successful portrait painter who studies faces for a living and cannot stop studying the woman he once loved.
- Colonel Capadose A charming, brave soldier with a cheerful gift for tall tales and pointless lies.
- Raymond Bestwick A young American painter who loves Dora Temperly and follows her family across the sea to Paris.
- Dora Temperly A quiet, plain, clever young woman who adores her mother and keeps her own counsel.
How it ends (spoiler)
In A London Life, Selina runs off with her lover, and Laura follows her to Brussels in vain, then sails home to America, where Mr. Wendover follows her. In The Patagonia, Grace Mavis vanishes from the ship in the night, and the narrator must break the news to Mr. Porterfield. In The Liar, Lyon watches the Colonel slash the portrait, hears the couple blame a stranger, and leaves Everina for good. In Mrs. Temperly, Dora agrees to wait, and Tishy stays small.
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What is A London Life, and Other Tales about?
It gathers four stories by Henry James: A London Life, The Patagonia, The Liar, and Mrs. Temperly. Each shows respectable people hiding something, from a failing marriage to a habit of lying, among Americans and English people.
Who is Laura Wing in A London Life?
Laura is a young American who lives with her married sister Selina at an English country house. She has very little money of her own, and she is torn between loving her sister and fearing the scandal that is coming.
What is The Patagonia in Henry James's story?
It is the name of a slow ocean liner carrying passengers from Boston to Liverpool. The story follows a girl traveling to be married and the gossip she attracts, told by a friendly observer who keeps watching.
Why is the painter's story called The Liar?
The title names Colonel Capadose, a charming soldier who tells brilliant, pointless lies. Oliver Lyon, the painter, studies him as a subject and hopes to put his true character on canvas.
Are these stories true, and are they easy to follow?
They are invented tales set in James's own time among well-off Americans and English people. Clear dialogue, short chapters, and lively characters make each story easy to follow and pleasant to hear.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
James, Henry. A London Life, and Other Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-london-life-and-other-tales.
James, H. (2026). A London life, and other tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-london-life-and-other-tales (Original work published 1889)
James, Henry. A London Life, and Other Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-london-life-and-other-tales.
@book{james2026london,
author = {James, Henry},
title = {A London Life, and Other Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-london-life-and-other-tales},
note = {First published 1889}
}
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