Two Countries

Two Countries is the alternative title used in some editions for a Henry James short story originally published as The Modern Warning in Harper’s Magazine in June 1888 and collected in The Aspern Papers and Other Stories the same year. It is one of his middle period international stories and one of the more directly political of his short fictions.

The story follows Agatha Grice, a young American woman who has married Sir Rufus Chasemore, a member of the British Parliament known for his strong opinions about America. The marriage has been one of those transatlantic alliances that bring together two countries in a single household and the question the story raises is whether the household can actually contain the political differences. Sir Rufus is writing a book about his observations of America, a book that Agatha gradually realises will be highly critical and that will be deeply hurtful to her American family and friends. The story works through her growing conflict between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her country and family.

The story is interesting partly as a historical document. The late nineteenth century was a period of substantial published British criticism of American manners, politics, and social arrangements, and James was clearly drawing on the actual phenomenon of books like those of Matthew Arnold and Anthony Trollope on America. The fictional Sir Rufus is a recognisable type. The drama of the story comes from putting a representative of that critical position into the most intimate relationship with a representative of the country being criticised, and watching what the strain does to the marriage.

The story runs about a hundred pages and is one of the longer of the middle period pieces. The ending is more dramatic and more melodramatic than James usually allowed himself. For readers interested in James’s handling of the international theme at greater length than the famous short stories, this is one of the more substantial pieces. It pairs naturally with Lady Barberina, which handles a different angle on the same general transatlantic marriage question.