<p>Henry James (1843—1916) was an American author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism. George Flack, the main character of this great story, is the Paris correspondent for an American scandal sheet called The Reverberator. Francie Dosson, a pretty but not always tactful American girl, confides to Flack some gossip about the Proberts, the Frenchified family of her fiance, Gaston Probert. James deplored the media, about a match that may be ruined by a gossip column.</p>