Henry James (1843–1916) was an American author regarded as a key transitional fi gure between literary realism and literary
modernism. In «The Sacred Fount» an unnamed narrator attempts to discover the truth about the love lives of his fellow
guests at a weekend party in the English countryside. He spurns the «detective and keyhole» methods as ignoble, and instead tries
to decipher these relationships purely from the behavior and appearance of each guest. He expends huge resources of energy and ingenuity on his theories, much to the bemusement of some
people at the party.