saving, and her eventual flight to America is a sad admission of defeat. Although several of the characters are American, James makes nothing of the international contrast. Many critics have wondered why James bothered with such an odd echo of his international theme, when all the characters could easily have been English without affecting the story in any way. Critical evaluation Edmund Wilson liked this story for its no-nonsense approach to the realities of a marital breakup. He classed it as part of what he saw as James's best period, when the novelist "reaches what seems to me indisputably his completist artistic maturity: he has got over a certain stiffness, a certain naivete, which characterized his earlier work and he has acquired a new flexibility and a personal idiom." Others have been much less kind. As mentioned above, Robert Gale tagged the story as "unpleasant" and Edward Wagenknecht found it "not technically impressive," with a "hurried ending" and a "rather forced" international note. Critics have also divided on Laura Wing, with Leon Edel dismissing her as "rigid and meddlesome" while Wagenknecht sympathizes with her in strong terms: "There is no character in his books—not even Isabel Archer, not even Fleda Vetch—to whom James commits himself more unreservedly than to Laura Wing". Such forceful reactions may testify to the power of the story's unembarrassed portrayal of a messy divorce. References Henry James: The Middle Years 1882-1895 by Leon Edel (Philadelphia: Lippincott 1962) The Portable Edmund Wilson edited by Lewis Dabney (New York: Penguin Books 1983) The Tales of Henry James by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1984) A Henry James Encyclopedia by Robert L. Gale (New York: Greenwood Press 1989) External links Original magazine publication of A London Life (1888) Author's preface to the New York Edition text of A London Life (1908) Note on the texts of A London Life at the Library of America web site 1888 short stories Short stories by Henry James American novellas Works originally published in Scribner's Magazine