The Outcry

"The Outcry", Henry James's final novel, is an effervescent comedy of money and manners. A popular success in its own day, but long unavailable since and now almost unknown, "The Outcry" is one of the most surprising and amusing of James's works. Here he explores questions of privilege and initiative, repute and honour, high art and base calculation, revisiting some of his favourite themes with a deft and winning touch.

Breckenridge Bender, a very rich American with a distinct resemblance to J.P. Morgan, arrives in England with the purpose of acquiring some very great art; he is directed to Dedborough, the estate of the debt-ridden Lord Theign. But plutocrat and aristocrat come into unexpected conflict when a young connoisseur, out to establish his own reputation, declares a prize painting from the lord's collection to be in fact an even rarer, and pricier, work than had been thought.