The American
by Henry James
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Definitely not one of Henry James' best novels but it is still a great pleasure to read. It tells a tale of an innocent, naive' but essentially good-natured American businessman venturing to Europe, falling in love and finding himself defeated in an ambitious attempt to marry a beautiful French woman of blue-blooded aristocracy. In a sense, it's a romance novel, but the book brims with irony and comedy. In the novel, the material self-satisfaction of the American came to crash with the polish...more
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Read in February, 2007
This is a terriffic book, perhaps the best of James's early novels. The American is a delight, a beach read: funny and occasionally touching, as well as an excellent introduction James' novels of American innocence versus European experience. Although it's more romance than realism, as James himself acknowledged, the high-tone characters and parisian milieu foreshadow the themes he'd later explore in his infinitely more sophisticated Ambassadors. The book is chock-a-block with intrigue, set-pi...more
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It's a 'classic' so I know I'm supposed to like it, or at least feel slightly more erudite for having read it. I've read a pretty good cross section of classics, some I loved (Gatsby), some I hated (Awakening). Unfortunately The American falls in the latter category. The story is fine, the plot is certainly well done. The problem is James' writing is dry in the same fashion that crossing the desert without water and then eating a carpet is dry. Sure it builds character, but why bother?
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I am half half when it comes to James. However- this book was horrid in my mind. I had an earache when I read it and I felt like I was underwater. The fact that he includes page long preposterous sentences that make me forget what he was saying in the first place.
And...I know this is meaningful stuff, but to me? He hardly says anything and NOTHING HAPPENS in this book.
Oy.
And...I know this is meaningful stuff, but to me? He hardly says anything and NOTHING HAPPENS in this book.
Oy.
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Read in May, 2008
I like 18th Century literature. Henry James, an American, wrote about disaffected Americans living in Europe. This is one of those stories, and the main character is seeming to be an interesting guy. However, I'm listening to the audio book and the reader is terrible. It makes a huge difference, and I might bail and just read the book with my eyes instead of my ears.
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Read in November, 2005
Not my favorite James -- still worth a go. The ur-text of his series of American/European amorous cross-class encounters. Some great stuff. I'd pick up the New York Edition just for the bizarre, histrionic, tumorous revisions of his earlier and cleaner style. They pretty much sink the book, like a gold figurehead on a paper boat, but that's part of the fun.
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Read in June, 2007
This was one of Henry James' earlier books, and it shows. Not by being worse - more by being so much easier to read, and less unbearably irritating, than his later creations. I thought the ending was brilliant - very cleverly done. But more than that: the punctuation! SO much smoother and more skilful than in his later books. THAT is how to do it.
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I only give it two stars because I was mired down in James' extremely well developed vocabulary. Though written in English, I do feel like it is in some sort of foreign language that I do not speak....thus complicating my enjoyment of it. Maybe I need to take the GRE and then go back and read it with an improved vocabulary? Ahh...Henry James.
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Read in July, 2007
I love this book for two reasons. 1) Its by Henry James who's a total f*ing genius. 2) It was read aloud to me (that's right, the whole thing) by my dad when I was sick in bed this past summer. He has a wonderful reading voice. same. I count it among my most treasured experiences with a novel.
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recommended to Lavinia by:
ZCMI clerk
I read this book in the women's dressing room stall at ZCMI while I was waiting for my mom to get off work. I thought it was a beautiful love story set in the Louvre. I liked this book also, because he delves deep into the thoughts of each character. Great book.
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
good intro to James
I'm actually rereading this book. Easy to read, a bit melodramatic, but the structure is interesting and I liked the characters. Foreshadows all the themes he'll explore later--Americans and Europeans, money vs. birth, the woman trapped by her family, etc.
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Read in June, 2007
A bit stuffy (unsurprisingly) and generally bland. I can understand why it's a "classic"- grandiose language, virtuous protagonist caught in a web of deceit, etc.- but I wouldn't go out of my way to read it again. Easily dismissed.
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Read in January, 1996
I had my mother send me this book when I was living in the French Alps. To say I was lonely at times might be understating things; Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones became my unoficial theme song.
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Read in November, 2007
Surprisingly goofy, and a lot of fun to read. Oddly,what's most prominent in my mind a few months later is the image of the rundown apartments, as if I'd actually seen them.
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Read in January, 2007
I hated the ending, but it was a typical Henry James ending. I enjoyed the American/French perspective, and the new money/old money juxtaposition. Good book overall.
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It was this or The Ambassedors, I read one several years ago and then I finally finished the other last year after many periods of picking it up and putting it down
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Enjoyable as lighter (but not frivolous) reading. The first James' novel I ever read and a good introduction to his work for me (mostly because it's short).
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Has a copy to sell/swap
A little hard to get through, but I liked it. I thought it was funny at times. The new rich American trying to get the attention of an aritocrat European.
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Read in June, 2007
Excellent starter James. Much more interesting than "Washington Square" or "Turn of the Screw." Much easier than "The Ambassadors."
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New world meets old as new-moneyed American millionare travels to Europe to find a wife among the old world beaurocrats.
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