The American [Jimcin Edition]

By: Henry James

Narrated by: Jim Killavey

During a trip to Europe, Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman, asks the charming Claire de Cintre to be his wife. To his dismay, he receives an icy reception from the heads of her family, who find Newman to be a vulgar example of the American privileged class. Brilliantly combining elements of comedy, tragedy, romance and melodrama, this tale of thwarted desire vividly contrasts nineteenth-century American and European manners.© and (P) Jimcin Recordings

The American

It took a little while to get used to the reader's style, but once I did I found he carried very well both James's prose and the intense suspense he creates.

Such annoying narration

I tried hard to enjoy the story line, which seemed promising. Killavey sounds like he is an early poor quality atrempt at electronically read text. He especially butchers narration of conversations, particularly what might be efforts to imitate French or British accents? Painful at times. Too bad.

Great book, poor reader

My great pleasure in listening to this title could have been even greater if the reader had known how to pronounce French words.

Good book / poor narrator

Please consider before buying: The narrator reads in nearly a monotone and sounds like he has no idea how to do expression at all. There are certainly no accents or different voices for the different characters. He has a slight Boston accent and pronounces the word "picture" incorrectly. Since pictures are mentioned frequently, this becomes very irritating. I considered abandoning the book because of the boring narration. Very poor quality - very disappointing!

Interesting but lacking

I love the author’s ability to narrate society in Newman’s time. However, the narrator was dull. The story was sad for me and incomplete.