About this title: A brash and wealthy American named Christopher Newman, a veteran of the Civil War, goes to Paris in search of an aristocratic wife. He falls in love with the widowed Claire de Cintré (née Bellegarde), whose ruthless, snobbish mother and older brother refuse to allow them to marry. Another family member tells Newman a family secret that he can use to force the Bellegardes to agree to the marriage, but he is too upright to do so. He gives up his pursuit of Claire, she enters a convent, and American innocence succumbs to the jaded and cynical sophistication of the Old World.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Rinehart
Date Published: 1955
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. "1955 Seventh printing". Rinehart Editions (16) in poor condition. Cover has been taped. Some markings. Working copy only. 360 p. Introduction by Joseph Warrn Beach read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780192833228ISBN:0192833227
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 448 p. Oxford World's Classics. Audience: General/trade. Back has a small blemish effecting the last couple pages, but it is very small, otherwise in very good condition. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Signet Classic
Date Published: 1963
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. rubbed spine, moderate rubbing cover, copy tight, clean, crossed out name inside back cover. read more
Binding: Perfect Bound Paper
Publisher: Holt Rinehart Winston
Date Published: 1966
Description: Good + to Very Good-- No Jacket as Issued. Trade Paperback. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. PON on FEP. Light wear, some fading to wrap edges. Binding tight, pages clean though old store price penciled on FEP. (Store Display-Classics/Gen Fic) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Signet
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. -5th Printing--333 pgs. Interior-Nice overall condition. The paperback cover has light signs of aging. -Publish Place: New York-Size: 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780140390094ISBN:014039009X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 471 p. Penguin ClassicsLibrary. Audience: General/trade. Spengemann, William C (Editor) read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Signet Classic, New York
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780451525178ISBN:0451525175
Description: Not Issued jacket. 1980, Signet Classic paperback in GOOD condition; no dust jacket as issued. Tight binding; square; edge wear; spine and hinge crease; top, front corner bumped. Clean, bright pages; no marks. 333 p. (2383) read more
"The American, not surprisingly, is a book about an American, who, having been successful in business all his life, goes to France to win over a wife. The hero is a good natured, self-made millionaire named Newman (get it?) who falls in love with the only daughter of a very old, aristocratic, half French have Anglo-saxon family. Initially, they are won over by his money, but, in the end, can not consent to let their daughter marry a man a business man of the nouveau riche. (This isn't a spoiler, it tells you all this on the back of the book). At this point, Newman must decide whether or not to exact revenge. The book is very well written and though it starts off slow, by about page one hundred the plot picks up and the book becomes very interesting. What is so odd about this book is that, despite it's title, it is very unclear, by the end of the novel, who is the winner, the likable, resourceful American or the stuffy, class conscious Europeans. To quote an expert, the book appears to be, "an evocation of America's perennial love-hate relation with Europe and all its attendant feelings of cultural inferiority and moral superiority, of parricidal guilt and newborn innocence, of nostalgia for the old home and the urge to destroy it."--William Spengemann. If this doesn't sound very interesting to you, think of it as a tale of thwarted love and revenge, and never mind the part about the French appearing so unflappable. The book was published in 1876, we've more than given them there comeuppance since then."
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