Customer Reviews

The American

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is long, but only because that's how James tells the story. It's like a soup that needs to boil all day, so it's kept on low, but when it's done, it's perfect. The book stays at the pace of "our hero" the American Christopher Newman. A smart, educated, rich, yet easy going, simple, and humane veteran of the Civil War and a self made tycoon, who goes to Europe to see the "treasures and entertain" himself.

He becomes entangled in what he thinks is a simple plan for matrimony, but is really truly a great deal larger and more treacherous and terrible than that.

We spend a lot of time in Newman's mind, paragraphs of character analaysis are sprung upon us, but nothing seems plodding or slow, nothing feels useless. By the end of the book we find that we think like the character and can only agree with what he does. We react to seemingly big plot twists and events as he does, without reaction, and a logical, common sense train of thought.

But don't misunderstand that. For a book that is so polite and the essence of "slow-reaction", it is heartwrenching and tragic. You will cry, you will wonder, and you will ask yourself questions. Colorful, lifelike, and exuberant characters fight for your attention and your emotions, and we are intensely endeared to them. Emotional scenes speckle the book and are just enough. And the fact that something terrible and evil exists in this story hangs over your head from the beginning. It's hard to guess what happens because James doesn't give us many clues, and the ending may come as a surprise to some people. And without us knowing it, James is comparing American culture to European culture (of the day), and this in of itself is fulfilling.

Indeed, James uses every page he has, without wasting any on detailed landscapes and useless banter. 2 pages from the end you have a wrenching heartache, but the last paragraph and page is utterly and supremely satisfying, and you walk away the way Newman walks away, at peace.

I have this friend who hates Henry James. I can't understand it. The style is dated, in that people dont write that way today, but as you get into the book you begin to enjoy the style, as well as the plot, characters, and French/American dual culture shock that still goes on today. (For an update on the theme, look at Le Divorce and Le Mariage by Diane Johnson). I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen to these characters and the description of Paris in the Second Empire were fascinating. If you watch the Masterpiece Theatre version without having read the book, you will be totally confused. They moved events out of sequence all over the place and after about ten minutes I shut off the tape and picked up the book. You have to know the whole story before you watch them throw characters and events at you in the first two scenes that only appear 2/3 of the way through the novel, after a foundation has been laid as to who they are and when and why things happened.

I couldnt recommend this more for a good read. The only caution I have is for readers who have never been to France. They may get an extremely negative impression of French people from many of the characters in this book. Go to Paris and you will find the city is wonderful, and so are the French people. These characters are not typical!! They belong to a certain class, and the book does take place 150 years ago. If this book doesnt get you hooked on James, I dont know what will. Try Washington Square and dont miss that movie, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Albert Finney and Maggie Smith.

This is about a successful American businessman in his thirties who leaves the USA, having made his fortune in copper and railroads, to travel around Europe and to find a wife. He encounters an old friend in the Louvre who takes him home and introduces him to his own interesting wife. Mrs. Tristram takes Christopher happily under her wing, absorbs him into her circle of friends, and tells him of an old friend who'd be just the perfect wife for him - a young and beautiful widowed countess of unimpeachable descent. Christopher meets Claire de Cintré and from that moment his one obsession is to marry her.

An attractive hero, he possesses remarkable talents. In fact he has pretty well every virtue except exalted antecedents; he is, for example, tall, good-looking, urbane, well-mannered, forthright, intelligent, thoughtful, considerate, persistent, good-natured, generous and rich. At their first meeting he conquers Claire sufficiently to be allowed to continue to visit her, instead of being shown the door. Actually, his dogged audacity is pretty amazing; he simply asks her to marry him after about the fifth meeting, because he wants everything to be above-board. She says No and he promises not to mention the matter for another six months. He then succeeds in making a bargain with her mother and brother, the most rigid and narrow dyed-in-the-wool aristocrats, that they will not stand in his way or say anything against him until she accepts his hand. Marquise and marquis make no secret of their dislike of him ("a commercial person"), nor of their horror and disgust at the entire proposition. These are two different worlds. Christopher is aware of it but is confident that their differences can be overcome; after all he is very rich and he knows this is important to them. He sees no reason why sensible individuals would not agree in time to a straightforward and sensible offer.

Matters seem to proceed well or better than can be expected, and when the six months are up Claire graciously accepts Christopher's proposal. A dramatic turn of events, however, obstructs their happy plans.

Henry James is a joy for those who like a sedate plot to unfold slowly, carefully and thoroughly. His psychological observations are minute; his characters drawn with deftest strokes, and one or two lighter subplots fill out the general late-Victorian picture. Bigoted aristocrats, unprincipled upstarts, impulsive young noblemen, impassive secret-keepers, loquacious duchesses, these and many other finely-drawn characters fill the pages of this enthralling story.

Though nothing I've read so far compares to Portrait of a Lady, this novel is up there (with Roderick Hudson, The Bostonians, and What Maisie Knew) with his best work.

Yes, it's a page turner with the standard James conventions - the European setting, the culture clashes and faux pas, the decaying nobility with their dark secrets, and wry humor.

Very entertaining, and great for a summer read. I heard that Masterpiece Theatre is working on an adaptation.

Having recently been exposed to European aristocracy, I found reading this book, as an American, irresistible. I disagree with reviewers who say there is no longer tension between French and American ideology as manifest on a daily interactive level. It's still there. Many Americans view the French as rude and cynical (not unlike the reviewer from Jamaica, New York), whilst the French, perhaps rightly, view Americans as hopelessly naive and 'gauche'. As James's book attests, this isn't a recent phenomenon, and the exploration of the roots of it is fascinating. I do agree that much of the conflict stems from class distinction, but James' own interpretative notes indicate an interest in exploring the clash of ideologies, and he chose the aristocracy because it was that facet of European civilization most "entrenched" in the old ways of thinking vis a vis' the new, American viewpoint. The narrative style is smooth. I thought the prose more attractive than that in 'Portrait of a Lady', for instance, which was almost Teutonic in its abhorrence of placing verbs at the beginning stages of the sentences.

What does a confident, energetic, single, self-made American millionaire do after amassing a fortune while still in his thirties? In the case of Christopher Newman, the good-natured, optimistic protagonist in Henry James' The American (published 1877), our hero (as James labels him) takes his money and makes on an extended visit to Europe, in search of culture, amusement and excitement to complement his exceedingly practical commercial past. The primary storyline centers on Newman's tireless efforts to marry a French woman, Claire, who is the woman of his dreams. Although the relationship goes passably well at first, despite obvious differences between Newman's straightforward American ways and Claire's aristocratic family, events abruptly take a turn for the worse about two-thirds of the way through the novel. Ultimately, Newman's "commercial side" is too much for the class-conscious Bellegardes to bear, and Claire is forced to reject Newman and retreat to the confines of a nunnery.

For anyone with an interest in understanding the clash of American and European society, values and culture, particularly in the late 19th century, The American is a worthwhile read. While the language and style of the work are at times a bit tedious, James' classic novel succeeds in elevating a common literary theme--man meets woman--onto a higher, more expansive cross-cultural stage. Though a happier resolution may have made for a more popular work of fiction, the realistic, less romanticized ending, with Newman pensive and melancholic and Claire cloistered away and out-of-touch in the nunnery, is exemplary of our universal human condition--a bittersweet affair in which openness and honesty do not necessarily win out over the inevitable prejudices, societal norms and sometimes even ill intentions of others.

One element of the story that I was hoping to find but did not was at least an inkling of how Newman, Claire, the Bellegardes or any other character in the novel go about finding a sense of "deeper meaning" in life. Newman has money but seeks an ideal wife. Claire appears to have the choice of marrying but is really being controlled by her family and ends up seeking solace (and maybe even emotional freedom?) in religion. The Bellegarde family have social status but are too embroiled in internal strife to be content. Beyond his cross-cultural (American versus European) social commentary, could James also be hinting that neither money, nor status, nor family, nor religion can bring us lasting satisfaction? If not any of the above, toward what higher objective should we all--individuals and societies alike---spend our waking hours striving toward?

Christopher Newman, a wealthy, good-natured Western magnate, has retired to Europe in order to better himself. There he is introduced to Claire de Cintré as a representative of his ideal woman. He does prize her, and determines to marry her, though the nobility of her family, the Bellegardes, seems to preclude such a bond. His friendship with her brother and easy democratic feeling make Newman regard himself as "noble" as they, though of course he isn't. It's quite a subtle and clever tale; it's not quite a doomed romance, for there's little indication that Newman and Claire really love each other. She finds him novel and he finds her ideal, but would they make a happy couple? And as the book is told mostly from the viewpoint of Newman, it requires reading between the lines to see just what a bumbler the tall, rich, confident American is when it comes to European social traditions. Finally, there is deep suspense when Newman has the chance to damage the Bellegardes' reputation. James draws the question out masterfully, and provides a very correct, if bittersweet, ending. It's a fine novel of manners, written in skillful, deft prose.

Henry James lived most of his life in Europe. When he was 36 years old
he wrote a novel about an American millionaire named Chrisopher Newman who was also 36. The novel of manners opens in Paris where Christopher
(named for Christopher Columbus) is enjoying his fortune, visiting art galleries and looking for a suitable wife. The Civil War veteran is a non-intellectual who is a version of an innocent abroad. He will join the countless characters in Jamesian fictions who are innocent Americans dealing with the old world culture of European sophistication.
Through a friend Mrs. Tristam he meets the Bellegard family. He falls in love with the enigmatic Claire Bellegarde courting her for several months. She agrees and then refuses to wed him. Claire retreats to a nunnery in Paris. Claire had been "sold" by her family to the rich and old man Cintre but he has died. She is used as a pawn by her evil mother and odious older brother. The reader will learn why she rejects Newman, the secret of the Bellegarde family and gain an appreciate of what society was like in the 1870s in Paris.
A secondary plot deals with the young Valentin Bellegarde who fights a duel over a prostitute. He befriends Newman introducing him to his formidable mother and brother.
The book is very understandable "The American" is not like the later James works of
"The Wings of the Dove, "The Ambassadors", and "The Golden Bowl" with their dense prose and convoluted pyschological style of probing the consciousness of the major characters.
Henry James was a genius who sought to understand the human heart. In this novel of 1876 the master has produced a fine book. This book is a good introduction to the world of James. Recommended.

If you haven't read this book yet and don't want to know how it ends, then don't read Jim Gallen's review, "A Romance for the Unromantic". Actually, I can't be sure that he gave away the true ending. I was planning to buy and read the book until I read his review, and now I won't bother. Mr. Gallen, if you want to discuss the ending, please post a warning next time. After all, once we read it, we can't "unread it" - the damage is done.

In The American, Henry James attempts to convey the differences between the market-driven republicanism of the United States and the monarchical traditions of Old Europe (France in particular). It seems that whenever anyone explores differences, stereotypes precipitate from the mix, and even the careful craft of Henry James is subject to this law of language. Yet one gets the sense that James is aware that presuming to accurately describe actual differences carries with it the risk of proscribing inferred differences. Thus, the novel seems to be more about the act of writing about differences - and not just nineteenth century differences - than anything else.

At the end of The American, neither "side" truly wins or loses in any definite sense, and this becomes emblematic of Modernity - the inability (futility?) inherent in attempting to reconcile past traditions with new ideas. Ezra Pound's mantra, "make it new," gave a center to Modernism, and The American shows us that the desire for newness inherently involves negotiations with the past: Those who carry old traditions desire to render their time-worn customs as eternally of the present while those seeking new ideas must remember the ideas of the past so as to break from them. The overwhelming questions remain: When should one drop outdated customs in favor of something new, and how can one recognize traditions worth keeping?