 In many of his tales, characters seem to exemplify alternative futures and possibilities, as most markedly in "The Jolly Corner", in which the protagonist and a ghost-doppelganger live alternative American and European lives; and in others, like "The Ambassadors," an older James seems fondly to regard his own younger self facing a crucial moment.The first period of James's fiction, usually considered to have culminated in "The Portrait of a Lady", concentrated on the contrast between Europe and America.The style of these novels is generally straightforward and, though personally characteristic, well within the norms of 19th-century fiction.