The Europeans: A Sketch (Penguin Classics)

Editorial Review:

An incomparable Henry James's novel in a new edition
Featuring a new introduction, it is a brilliant and sophisticated satire of manners and morals in the best Jamesian tradition. The Europeans, one of James's most popular and optimistic novels, has at its center an expatriated American raised in Europe who, determined to find a new husband, flees from her crumbling marriage and travels to Boston with her younger brother.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

A pleasant diversion, but not numbered among James' best.:

Henry James is one of the seminal novelists of the Victorian era, an American by birth who made his adult life in London, the capital of the late 19th century world. James' novels were shaped by this immigrant experience, the predominant them of his writing being the interaction between Americans and Europeans. "The Europeans" is one such story, though, contrary to what the title might suggest, it is set in America.
My introduction to James' work was a pair of his novellas, "The Aspern Papers" and "The... more info

The Europeans:

When I found out that "The Europeans", by Henry James, could offer more than just a wonderful film, I couldn't wait to order the unabridged "The Europeans" Audio-CD, read by Lloyd James, as well as the complete soundtrack CD "The Europeans", with composer Richard Robbins' arrangements.
The film is a James Ivory's masterpiece with a New England autumn background, the Audio-CD matches the film wonderfully, where you can picture the film characters through Lloyd's interpretation, and the Soundtrack CD... more info

An Early James Novel, and Not As Good as Portrait of a Lady:

This is a 4 or 5 star novel but not a great work of literature.
Somewhat surprisingly the Europeans is set in rural Massachusetts, not in Europe. The book is a few hundred pages long. This length is longer than Washington Square and much shorter that Portrait of a Lady, the latter being a much better novel than the present work.
Without giving away the plot, it has that Henry James characteristic of an uncertain final outcome hence the novel lacks a completely satisfying ending. There is some... more info

All's well that ends well:

This is a novel in superlative style: 'heroic, magnanimous, exalted, brightly, caressingly, exquisite, fascinating, wonderful, sublime, radiant, delightful ...'
It confronts and mingles very superficially two impoverished Europeans with members of a wealthy Boston bourgeoisie family in a play of misunderstood sentiments and love.
There is absolutely not a shade of a discussion of the social/mental difference between Europe and the US at the end of the 19th century.
This book doesn't 'say... more info

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