The American

Originally serialised in the Atlantic Monthly between 1876 and 1877 then published in book form within a year, The American was James' second novel after Roderick Hudson. The plot, which eventually runs amok, concerns the efforts of Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman, to marry the beautiful French widow Claire de Cintre. Newman's progress, which at times runs counter to the wishes of Cintre's family and at other times to their tune, is further complicated by hidden secrets and social mores. Unfortunately, while the first half of the book keeps matters under restraint, it seems James literally lost the plot during the second half, allowing all the available threads to find their own limits rather than tying them onto the central thread of Newman's pursuit. This fraying of the threads creates a sense of mayhem that is unusual in a James novel in which, typically, the plot is underdone.