Customer Reviews

The Bodley Head Henry James: v. 2

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A sequel in a sense to THE AMERICAN, which was about an American going to Europe to find a suitable wife; here we find two Europeanized Americans returning from Europe for the same purpose. Eugenia, who is married to a German prince but whose titles she cannot claim, a marriage that is likely to be soon dissolved, and her brother Felix come to Boston to visit relatives, the Wentworths. The Wentworth children, Gertrude, Charlotte, and Clifford, become intimate with them. Eugenia meets Robert Acton and they become drawn to each other, but when she also flirts with Clifford, a neer-do-well who was booted out of Harvard for drunkenness, Acton becomes wary of her and never proposes (she returns to Europe disappointed that her scheme has failed). Felix, meanwhile, makes money painting portraits in Boston; he and Gertrude fall in love and eventually marry. By happy fall of events, Clifford and Charlotte also find marriage partners by the books end: Clifford to Acton's sister Lizzie, and Charlotte to Rev. Brand, who was spurned by Gertrude for Felix.

It's among the lightest (James himself thought it so light as to be superficial) and most charming of James's novels. James's comments on American and European traditions are also interesting, revealed most assuredly in the character of Felix, the artistically sophisticated fellow who gets caught up nicely in the happy-go-lucky American lifestyle. James had set out to write a "happy short novel for a change," and he succeeded nicely.