Bro, It's not a novel啊,a play: Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde, whose trial was described in the Master. Henry James and Oscar Wilde were both in London at that time. James debut in theatre was a failure while Wilde had a huge success. Then it was Wilde's trial, which inspired one of Henry James short stories.
From your reading: I didn't catch "actions". "infamous", the stress is on "in", not "fa"