American

Originally published in 1877, 'The American' is a novel by Henry James, an American-born British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. The novel is a tense blend of social satire and melodrama regarding the experiences and misadventures of Christopher Newman, a basically good-hearted but rather uncomfortable American businessman on his first tour of Europe. Newman is looking for a world different from the superficial, severe actualities of 19th-century American business. He undergoes both the beauty and the horror of Europe and discovers not to take either for granted. The essence of the novel concerns Newman's courtship of a young widow from an aristocratic Parisian family.