Henry James
is a novel published in 1878. Two so phisticatedEuropeansiblingsarriveinpuritanicalNewEnglandtomeet their distant American cousins. Eugenia seeks a wealthy husband after her morganaticmarriagefacesdissolution,whileherbrotherFelixembracestheir relatives’ simpler life. Cultural clash and romantic entanglements unfold as European worldliness meets New England propriety. Felix falls for his cousin Gertrude, but misunderstandings, white lies, and differing values complicate everyone’s hopes for happiness across the Atlantic divide. he next day wassplendid, as Felix had prophesied; if the winter had sud denlyleapedintospring,thespringhadforthemomentasquicklyleaped into summer. This was an observation made by a young girl who came out ofa large square house in thecountry,andstrolledaboutinthespaciousgar den which separated it from a muddy road. The flowering shrubs and the neatly-disposed plants were basking in the abundant light and warmth; the transparent shade of the great elms-they were magnificent trees-seemed to thicken by the hour; andtheintensely habitual stillness offered a submis sive medium to the sound of a distant church-bell. The young girl listened to thechurch-bell; butshewasnotdressedforchurch. Shewasbare-headed; she wore a white muslin waist,withanembroideredborder,andtheskirtof her dress was of colored muslin.She was a young lady of some two or three andtwentyyears ofage,andthoughayoungpersonofhersexwalkingbare headed in a garden, of a Sunday morning in spring-time, can, in the nature ofthings, neverbeadispleasingobject,youwouldnothavepronouncedthis innocent Sabbath-breaker especially pretty. She was tall and pale, thin and a little awkward; her hair was fair and perfectly straight; her eyes were dark, and they had the singularity of seeming at once dull and restless-differing herein, asyousee,fatallyfromtheideal'fineeyes,'whichwealwaysimagine tobeboth brilliantandtranquil.
