The graceful irony and firm construction of The Europeans proclaim the influence of Jane Austen on the early Henry James. This, his fourth novel, was based on a situation which must have been familiar to James himself when returning home from Europe. Significantly, perhaps, 'the Europeans' whom he introduces into a New England home - Baroness Münster and her brother, Felix are not Europeans in fact, but American cousins born and brought up in various European countries. Through them - the one morganatically married to a German princeling and the other a light-hearted artist - the sober, dutiful life of the Wentworths and their circle is 'exposed to peculiar influences'.
BBCL

Condition: Good