&quot;The Sacred Fount&quot; was written by Henry James and first published in 1901. It comes from the &lsquo;late period&rsquo; in James&rsquo;s development as a novelist, and has puzzled readers and critics ever since, because of the obscurity of its subject matter and the extremely complex manner in which the events are related.<br /><br />On the surface, it is the simple story of a number of people who travel to a weekend party at a country estate (Newmarch). But the narrator of events perceives hidden relations going on between some of the visitors &ndash; and he tries to work out the truth of these liaisons by psychological means alone, eschewing what he calls the ignoble methods of &ldquo;the detective and the keyhole&rdquo;.