Americans abroad, new world innocence contrasted with old world experience…it’s a tale as old as, well, as Henry James, at the very least.

In the 103 years which separate the publication of The Portrait of a Lady and Foreign Affairs, a great deal has changed. The stakes are much lower in the 1980s; divorce is now a private tragedy, not an irreparable break of the social code.

Perhaps that is why the stories of Virginia Miner, a schoolmarm-ish middle aged unhappy and lonely American academic, and Fred Turner, a young and handsome unhappy and lonely American academic, and their surprising romantic liaisons on the other side of the pond are so much fun to read.

The love affairs don’t end happily, as is so often the case (and Lurie throws in a few rather surprising plot twists towards the end…in its own gentle way, it’s a bit of a page turner), but the characters grow, and come back to their regular lives in the USA a bit wiser, a bit kinder, a bit more honest with themselves, and a bit more whole.

Travel, whether it be in the nineteenth or the twentieth century, can still be quite a transformative experience. And so can love.

NOVEL: Foreign Affairs

AUTHOR: Alison Lurie

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1984

IMAGE: book cover, Open Road Media