The American cover art

The American

Preview
This Season's Biggest Deal

$0.99/mo for 3 months + $20 Audible bonus voucher

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
More purchase options

The American

By: Henry James
Narrated by: Robin Lawson
Get this deal

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 28 December, 2026. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $25.85

Buy Now for $25.85

This Season's Biggest Deal | $0.99/mo for 3 months + $20 Audible bonus

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo. after 3 months - terms apply.
Summary

During a trip to Europe, wealthy American businessman Christopher Newman proposes marriage to the scintillating and beautiful aristocrat Claire de Cintri. To his dismay, he comes up against the machinations of her impoverished but proud family, who find Newman to be a vulgar example of the American privileged class. Brilliantly combining elements of comedy, tragedy, romance, and melodrama, this tale of thwarted desire vividly contrasts nineteenth-century American and European manners.

(P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Classics Marriage

Critic Reviews

“A masterpiece of American romanticism in which James shows us his profound grasp of what he was ultimately to call ‘the Americo-European legend.’”

(Leon Edel, literary critic, biographer, and foremost authority on the works of Henry James)

“The fine touch with which James explores the complexities of [the] scenario marks an extraordinary advance.”

(Amazon.co.uk, editorial review)

“The whole world was a rough place, as James would prove in fiction after fiction, brimming with pain and violence and darkness…One may see in The American his first great effort to take and give readers, in the largest sense of the words, the rough with the smooth.”

(Adrian Poole, author of The Cambridge Companion to English Novelists)
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.