The Coxon Fund

Frank Saltram is the most desired houseguest in England and the most impossible to be rid of. A brilliant intellect whose speeches dazzle and whose conversation compels, he has mastered the art of living at others' expense, never producing a word of serious work while consuming the patience and resources of his admirers. The Mulvilles exemplify his victims: generous hosts who harbor both genuine admiration and growing dread, watching their home become his permanent residence. James, with characteristic precision, maps the unspoken contract between genius and those who worship it, asking whether brilliance excuses its demands, or whether the worshippers are simply too weak to set boundaries. The story works as both comedy of manners and quiet tragedy: Saltram may be a fraud, or he may be a mind too vast for the small change of adulting. Either way, everyone around him is diminished. This is Henry James at his most barbed, exposing the寄生 relationship between talent and those who enable it.