Fantastic Metropolis

As the meeting date approaches, and it seems that the meeting will finally take place, the narrator begins to get cold feet. Because the woman is so much better looking than she, is more charming, more open, she is afraid to introduce her fiancée to her in fear she may lose him to her. At the last minute, the narrator sends a message to her fiancée that the meeting has been canceled and it does not come off. Still the woman appears in the late afternoon for the meeting and when she is informed that the narrator’s fiancé will not be able to show up, she appears heartbroken. She again looks at the portrait on the fireplace and then turns it over and looks at the back of it where the man’s address is written. She finally leaves in a state of thinly disguised depression.

Later, when her fiancée meets her for dinner, he reproaches her for not having been able to make the meeting work, and she admits to him that she called it off because she was beginning to feel a certain jealousy for the woman. Here a small rift begins between the narrator and the man and through the remainder of the story it slowly widens. To alleviate his anger at her for having been so foolish, she promises him that she will go to the woman’s house the next day and admit what she had done and apologize. This seems to heal things between the man and the narrator. Still, he does not stay with her after dinner but goes home. The next day, the narrator takes the train out to the suburbs to tell the woman what happened. When she gets to the woman’s door, she is greeted by the maid, who informs her that upon returning home the previous evening at 11:00, the woman fell upon the sofa and died. It comes to light that the woman had a long diagnosed heart ailment.

I will end my recounting of the plot here so as not to ruin the entire reading experience for those interested in checking out the story. Suffice it to say that James is not yet done in developing his plot. He torques it nicely at least three more times before the piece draws to a close. One can guess from a piece of minor information I have given in this essay what his next move might be.

What I like about “The Friends of the Friends” foremost is the writing. The style is impeccable, complex without being confusing, it manages to capture the machinations of the second narrator, her inner-thoughts as well as the action of the piece, drawing analogies between those inner and outer realities. Also, the plot begins simply enough, and you believe you have a handle on it and feel if it only follows this course through to the end it still promises a satisfying ghost story. Then there comes the addition of the second person who has seen a loved one’s fetch a long distance from home at the hour of death. The plot is turned another notch by the fact that no matter what pains are gone to, it seems impossible to bring the two together. On and on, James continues to ratchet up the plot as we go, and by the time the thing ends we are far afield from where we thought we were at first headed. All of this is accomplished at a very calm pace, no rush, no trumped up suspense.

There is a real eeriness to this story, and it certainly belongs in the ghost story genre, but there is also, almost more importantly, an intense portrait of the character of the troubled narrator. For my taste, when a speculative piece of fiction pays attention to the depth and development of its characters the results are always more rewarding than when the characters are indistinguishable cut outs, crudely formed, whose only purpose is to let the plot work on them. What is created by the former is a richer reading experience. “The Friends” offers supernatural events, an ingenious plot, an intensive character study, an unsettling feeling that continues to grow, a masterful manifestation of ambiguity, and a meditation on at least one aspect of the human drama. A question remains after one has seen the end of the story as to why the narrator acted as she did and what was her purpose in writing the incident down. That, one can spend some time pondering to any number of ends.

When readers claim that James’ stories have no plot, are boring and pointless to boot, I realize that they have never read his work. Although murder and mayhem and chains rattling in the upstairs hall have their charms for readers (this reader as well), James’ ghost stories will keep you awake at night just as late; more enthralled by entities haunting your head than fearful of ones haunting your house.

For the lover of the literature of the fantastic, I suggest The Sacred Fount; a short novel by Henry James. This one really skates on the thinnest edge of the genre, on a single blade of ambiguity.

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“The Friends of the Friends by Henry James” appeared for the first time in s1ngularity in 2003.

Jeffrey Ford is the author of a trilogy of novels from Eos Harper Collins—The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond. His most recent novel, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque (Morrow/Harper Collins), was published in June 2002 as was his first story collection, The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant & Other Stories (Golden Gryphon Press). His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines—including Fantasy & Science Fiction, SCI FICTION and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet—and anthologies such as The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, The Green Man: Tales From the Mythic Forest, Leviathan 3, and The Journal of Pulse Pounding Narratives.

Ford lives in South Jersey with his wife, Lynn, and two sons, Jack and Derek. He teaches Writing and Early American Literature at Brookdale Community College in Monmouth County, New Jersey.