Laura's beautiful sister Selina is hardly inclined to let morals get in the way of her own enjoyment of life; Selina has married up and is the ersatz mother of two adorable little boys, but she and husband Lionel are pretty much ready to part ways. Selina has a lover and isn't discreet about it, which torments Laura to no end. The plot follows a slightly winding path to a realistic conclusion (for Selina and her husband at least), and then Laura makes her disenchanted way back to America, specifically Virginia. However, anyone who's read Edith Wharton will know that America at the end of the 19th century wasn't quite a haven free of social subterfuge and adultery -- we can only hope that Laura remains in Virginia, which perhaps had more virtuous standards back then than Lily Bart's New York.
Among A London Life's better points are the side characters, such as the quirky and intriguingly named Lady Ringrose -- "a clever little woman with a single eye glass and short hair." There's also the wonderful and wise Lady Davenant, who urges Laura to be more pragmatic in her dealings with people and situations. James describes the near-octogenarian as "full of life, old as she was" with "a witty expression" which "shone like a lamp through the ground-glass of her good breeding." When asked whether she had a crush on Lord Byron back in her youthful days, Lady Davenant replies, "Bless me, yes...[h]e was very nice-looking but he was very vulgar."
James also distinguishes himself as usual with fine turns of phrase or dialogue. Selina is noted as being uniquely lovely, with curiously charming "long eyes" and a tendency to float through her days "with a serenity not disturbed by a general tardiness." Selina's husband Lionel is an coarse yet upper-crusty Brit who states bluntly that Selina can't stand him and hates him "as she'd hate a hump on her back. There isn't a feeling of loathing that she doesn't have for me! She'd like to stamp on me and hear me crack, like a black beetle...."
At the end, we don't know whether Laura ends up with her offbeat suitor and fellow American Mr. Wendover, just that he has followed her back to the States and that her general inclination towards him is not surprisingly morally upright. Though he has "worthy eyes" and seems to be a "good young man," he tends to treat all subjects "as if they were equally important," whereas Laura feels one needs to teach him be more discerning. Which she no doubt will.
