num_pages: 400
description: The American is a novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1876-77 and then as a book in 1877. Christopher Newman, a ‘self-made’ American millionaire in France, falls in love with the beautiful aristocratic Claire de Bellegarde. Her family, however, taken aback by his brash American manner, rejects his proposal of marriage. When Newman discovers a guilty secret in the Bellegardes’ past, he confronts a moral dilemma: Should he expose them and thus gain his revenge? James’s masterly early work is at once a social comedy, a melodramatic romance and a realistic novel of manners.
language: English
title: The American
titlecomplete: The American
genres: American, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, Romance, Fiction, 19th Century, France
ratings_count: 6640
places: Paris, Spain, France, San Sebastián, Biarritz, Basque Country
publisher: Signet