One of the masterworks of Henry Jamess middle phase the novella A London Life first appeared in serial form in Scribners Magazine in the summer of 1888 As the story opens Laura Wing a young American woman is living with her sister Selina and brotherinlaw Lionel Berrington at Mellows the Berrington family estate outside London where she has a frontrow seat for marital discord and its baleful effects on the couples children As Laura struggles to come to terms with her sisters possible infidelity and its ramifications for her own social standing the scene moves to London where James stages an unforgettable portrait of a marriages final dissolution For literary critic Edward Wagenknecht Laura Wing is one of Jamess essential heroines there is no character is his booksnot even Isabel Archer not even Fleda Vetchto whom James commits himself more unreservedly