THE EUROPEANS

In Henry James’s typical style, the characters of The Europeans, none of whom has much substance, and the details of their surroundings, which are the picture of bland, are exhaustively examined, while the plot, which could be handled in a single paragraph, receives about that much consideration. Lloyd James presents the story with exactly the same air of self-satisfied cleverness imparted by the text. His dramatic pauses, where the author can’t get over his own powers of perception, parade the wit and wisdom of the wealthy about as accurately as they deserve. Lloyd James differentiates little among the characters, save for the one European cousin who appears to have a slight amount of depth. Dialogue from the others is presented in the same narrative style as the rest of the text. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]