Product Description

Eugenia is the morganatic wife of a German prince who is repudiated by her husband in favour of a state marriage. With her artist brother Felix she goes to Boston to live with relatives whom she has never seen before, with hopes of making a wealthy marriage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80944 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Henry James was born in 1843 in Washington Place, New York, of Scottish and Irish ancestry. His father was a prominent theologian and philosopher and his elder brother, William, is also famous as a philosopher. He attended schools in New York and later in London, Paris and Geneva, entering the Law School at Harvard in 1862. In 1865 he began to contribute reviews and short stories to American journals. In 1875, after two prior visits to Europe, he settled for a year in Paris, where he met Flaubert, Turgenev and other literary figures. However, the next year he moved to London, where he became so popular in society that in the winter of 1878–9 he confessed to accepting 107 invitations. In 1898 he left London and went to live at Lamb House, Rye, Sussex. Henry James became a naturalized citizen in 1915, was awarded the Order of Merit and died in 1916.

Customer Reviews

Like A Whispered Gossip Behind A Cotton Gloved Hand
There has long been a comparison perceived between the works of Henry James and Edith Wharton. However this likeness is not particularly evident when it comes to The Europeans, for this is a novella that seems more like an American Jane Austen, written on a three inch by two inch square of ivory with a exuberant whirl of young people all seeming to be lovesick for another member of their circle in this tight microcosm of 19th C society. In those days of course, it was quite normal to be madly in love with and marrying your first cousin - in this modern age, we wouldn't dream of it!

The two Europeans of the title, Felix and Eugenia come to the US looking for their relations and as luck would have it, find them. There is certainly something satisfyingly delicious about the chase for true love, but just when I was expecting everything to fall into place, and each to get their man/woman... there was a little twist at the end, where one does not get their man/woman, souring the cake a little but giving an unexpected dose of a little more interest to this work.

In short - a nice swift enjoyable read, ideal for a long journey.

A pleasant and quick read, but little more
This is one of James's early works, and shows an indebtedness to Jane Austen. It is the story of a European brother and sister (of American parentage) who come to Boston on a surprise visit to their American cousins. Like Austen's works, it is an exploration of human attitudes and assumptions, the somewhat flambouyant Europeans set against their puritanically repressed American cousins. In this respect it is occasionally successful, and there are a few comic moments here, but as a whole it feels rather lightweight and inconsequential.

As I read this book, I kept imagining how appropriate it would be for a Merchant Ivory film. So I was not surprised to discover subsequently that one already exists.

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 nothing' (Thomas Hardy, quoted in the introduction), but nearly nothing. It hardly surpasses the level of a three-penny stationary novel, compared with the works of a Dostoevsky or a Flaubert.
It is terribly sentimental and the tears flow easily.

Only for Henry James fans.