Perhaps the most quietly terrifying story Henry James ever wrote — and nothing happens in it. John Marcher is certain he has been singled out for some rare and dreadful fate, and can do nothing but wait; May Bartram agrees to wait beside him, and the years drain away in drawing rooms. The beast has been crouching in the jungle the whole time, and the reader sees it long before Marcher does. This edition presents the complete and unabridged novella, newly typeset and illustrated with 30 full-page color plates, Hammershøi's empty rooms among them.