The Europeans

by Henry James

"The Europeans" by Henry James is a novel published in 1878. Two sophisticated European siblings arrive in puritanical New England to meet their distant American cousins. Eugenia seeks a wealthy husband after her morganatic marriage faces dissolution, while her brother Felix embraces their relatives' simpler life. Cultural clash and romantic entanglements unfold as European worldliness meets New England propriety. Felix falls for his cousin Gertrude, but misunderstandings, white lies, and differing values complicate everyone's hopes for happiness across the Atlantic divide.