The Reverberator A Novel

by James, Henry; Sicha, Choire

• ISBN13: 9781612191560
• ISBN10: 1612191568
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781612191577
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-04-23
• Publisher: Melville House

Summary

It's unclear why even many Henry James fans aren't familiar with this wicked early work, as it's James at his scathing best --- piercing, elegant, and ahead of his time. The story of an American hack journalist in Europe, The Reverberatoris an early example of James' fascination with Americans confronting Europe's version of civilized society. Yet here he gives the theme a sly twist, as the Europeans find themselves enamored with a particularly uncivil brand of Americanism ... George Flack, a rising star in the scandal-mongering new American journalism of the 1880s, finds himself posted to Paris as a foreign correspondent for The Reverberator. And, like half of Paris, he finds himself in love with the beautiful but naïve --- and engaged --- American girl Francie Dosson. But when Francie innocently reveals something about her fiancé's snobby family to Flack, Francie, her fiancé, and all of Paris suddenly find themselves in a public scandal of a type not seen before in the world's most sophisticated city. Informed, no doubt, by James own, miserable experience as a Paris-based correspondent for the New York Tribune, The Reverberatorfeatures his normal lucid and penetrating prose, although less complicated than his later prose --- and with a bit of extra zing his fans may not expect. ebook ISBN: 978-1-61219-157-7

Author Biography

HENRY JAMES was born in New York City in 1843, brother of philosopher William James. He entered Harvard Law School at 19 but soon quit to write and travel in Europe - to Paris, for example, where he met Flaubert, Turgenev, George Eliot, and Zola. Settling in London in 1876, he gained international fame with Daisy Miller, which scandalized Victorian society and sold thousands of copies. Never again would he equal its popularity, but his increasingly sophisticated and meticulously observed work, such as The Golden Bowl andThe Ambassadors, established him as the first master of psychological fiction. He died in England in 1916.

CHOIRE SICHA is a co-proprietor of the Awl.