6 h 23 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead 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 conversation, country house settings and moral puzzles about money and art will love this book. It also suits admirers of comedies of manners and family quarrels.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Beauty shares its rooms with bargaining
- A new name changes the stakes
- Grace refuses to become the payment
- Pride supplies the public spectacle
- Grace offers a deeply personal bargain
- The exhibition escapes its owner's control
- Ownership brings duties beyond the owner
- Grace chooses what cannot be bought
- Private choices become a public cause
Who’s who
- Lord TheignThe proud master of Dedborough Place, short of cash, who hates fuss and insists he can do as he likes with his own pictures.
- Lady GraceHis serious younger daughter, who loves the family treasures and finds her own voice against her father and her suitor.
- Hugh CrimbleA young art expert in glasses who thinks the Dedborough Moretto may be a rare Mantovano and wants to keep it in England.
- Mr Breckenridge BenderA genial American collector with a big shaven face who wants only the most expensive pictures and pays on the spot.
- Lady SandgateA charming, clever widow and old friend of Theign, who owns a prized Lawrence portrait and would like to sell it.
- Lord JohnA neat young nobleman and son of a formidable duchess, who courts Lady Grace and acts as guide to Bender.
- Lady ImberGrace's beautiful elder sister, called Kitty, who gambles heavily and leans on her father to pay her debts.
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The Outcry
by Henry James · 1911
A rich American wants the portrait of a duchess, and an English lord must decide what his pride is worth.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Not one more hour!”
In short
What happens when a rich American wants the loveliest portrait in an English country house, and the owner is proud, short of cash and surrounded by people who want him to sell? That is the problem at the heart of The Outcry, a comedy of manners by Henry James.
The Outcry at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 40 min2 h 55 min fast, 4 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 52,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1911by Henry James
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A calm house is full of quiet bargains
The novel opens at Dedborough Place on a spring afternoon. The park is open to four hundred and fifty schoolchildren, and Lord Theign is giving them advice at the top of his voice.
Two visitors reach the hall before their host returns. Lady Sandgate is a handsome widow and a close friend of the family. Lord John is a slight, neat young man who has driven over with a guest.
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Details
- First published
- 1911
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
James, Henry. The Outcry. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-outcry.
James, H. (2026). The outcry. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-outcry (Original work published 1911)
James, Henry. The Outcry. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-outcry.
@book{james2026outcry,
author = {James, Henry},
title = {The Outcry},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-outcry},
note = {First published 1911}
}
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What is The Outcry by Henry James about?
It is a comedy of manners about an English lord whose family treasure, a painting, is wanted by a rich American collector. Debts, a marriage plan and a newspaper campaign push the owner to a hard choice about selling.
Who is Mr Bender in The Outcry?
Breckenridge Bender is a wealthy American collector who buys famous pictures for large sums in cash. He wants only very costly works, and he speaks in plain, cheerful American phrases that amuse and puzzle the English.
What is a Mantovano in The Outcry?
Mantovano is the name of a rare painter, of whom only seven works are known. Hugh Crimble suspects that the Dedborough portrait, always labelled a Moretto, is really his eighth, which would make it far more valuable.
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.
“Not one more hour!”
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