Henry James and the Mobile Phone

James would have been as fascinated by mobile phones as he was by telegrams, means of communication that are never as private as we might wish, whether we are trying to protect our own words from scrutiny or to shield ourselves from others' braying voices. James's 1898 novella 'In the Cage' explores some of the fantasies that bloom around these dangerous, arousing means of exchange. This essay reflects on privacy, curiosity and sociability, in James's time and our own.