If, as Foster Wallace says, every love story is a ghost story, "The Friends of the Friends" is the perfect one. A story or fable of encounters that must necessarily happen — and do happen against all odds. A story or fable narrated by a protagonist tortured by her jealousy, those pale monsters, mockers of the soul, which ultimately become the key to a complex and mystery-laden plot. Perhaps this is one of Henry James' finest tales — the king of atmosphere. Known both for his psychologically tense novels and stories and for his essays on literary theory, Henry James is one of the great masters of modern fiction.