Publisher's Synopsis
The Siege of London first appeared in The Cornhill Magazine in January-February 1883. The magazine had been edited until the year before by Leslie Stephen, who was the father of Virginia Woolf. James was in fact a friend of the family, and it is highly likely that Leslie Stephen had personally accepted the story for the magazine. The main theme of this story is fairly easy to understand and is directly related to its slightly ironic title. Mrs Headway lays siege to London in the sense of establishing her right to a place in its upper social echelons. She is an ambitious and very determined woman with a rather murky past, which technically should prohibit her from making such inroads.
