Henry James, The Europeans

Pat Righelato (University of Reading)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1878

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

The Europeans, set in the 1840s, opens with a woman at a hotel window in Boston in mid-May viewing the dismal scene of a graveyard in dirty snow while a young man sketches by the fire. The novel is subtitled “A Sketch” and, in the first chapter, a series of sketches registers the personal characteristics and relationship of the two figures as subjects, at the same time as they are portrayed as observers responding to the changing weather. The singular exotic aspect of the woman at the window contrasts with the exterior wintry slush in which, at periodic intervals, democratic jumbles of Bostonians project themselves into new-fangled vehicles called omnibuses. As the couple are gradually revealed first to be sister and …

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2116 words

Citation: Righelato, Pat. "The Europeans". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=924, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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