The Gilded Age novel that helps explain our fascination with Luigi Mangione

The mystery of human choices, even when circumstances are known, occupied writers like Henry James. Gene J. Puskar/Getty Images

A good-looking young man with a mysterious past carries a loaded gun, ready to kill, on the streets of the world’s financial capital.

This scene not only describes Luigi Mangione’s alleged murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown New York – and the ensuing flood of media attention – but also the plot of one of Henry James’ lesser-read novels, “The Princess Casamassima.”