Story summary
Streszczenie książki Europejczycy
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
An obscure artist and his clever sister cross the sea to Boston to meet cousins who they hope are rich.
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Europejczycy — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 3 h 50 min3 h 5 min fast, 4 h 35 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 55 200
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1878by Henry James
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Europejczycy in short
The Europeans is the story of two visitors from the old world who land in a quiet New England family and stir it up. Felix charms everyone without trying. Eugenia charms everyone on purpose, and she has a plan.
What Europejczycy is about
Picture a sleet-battered May morning in Boston. A woman stands at a hotel window and glares at a white church steeple she has decided to hate. Behind her, her brother hums and sketches the scene. She is Eugenia, Baroness Münster, and he is Felix Young. They have crossed the ocean to meet American cousins they have never seen, and she has one demand of them: that they be rich.
The Europeans is a short comic novel by Henry James, published in 1878. Two charming, worldly outsiders meet a family of serious New Englanders, and you will watch the visitors change everyone around them.
Dla kogo. This book suits readers who love witty conversation, sharp portraits of families, and stories driven by a clash between two ways of living. Fans of Jane Austen will feel at home.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Two travelers land in a cold, wet Boston
The story opens in a Boston hotel room on a miserable May day. Sleet falls on an old graveyard, and a strange horse-drawn streetcar rattles past. Eugenia, thirty-three, paces the floor and declares she wants to go straight back to Europe.
Her brother Felix, twenty-eight, only laughs. He sketches the streetcar and says there is no such thing as a mistake. Eugenia answers that not seeing mistakes is simply what happiness is. She admits she is ambitious, and that she would never have come had she not known their cousins were rich.
Then the sun breaks through, just as Felix promised. Eugenia sends Felix ahead to inspect the cousins and report back. She will appear when she chooses.
Two outsiders arrive with different hopes, and the story begins in the gap between them.
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Felix walks out and finds Gertrude alone
The next morning is a Sunday, and the scene moves to a large gray wooden house in the country.
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The Baroness wins over her uncle's household
That evening Felix reports that the family are a company of angels, the house is plain and clean, and there is money quietly behind it all.
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A small white house becomes a foreign outpost
The Wentworths debate what to do with their guests.
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Felix paints portraits and Gertrude listens
Felix soon makes himself useful.
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Robert Acton grows curious about the Baroness
Robert Acton is the family's man of the world.
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Clifford, a bouquet, and a visitor at midnight
Mr. Wentworth has a private worry.
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Gertrude wants pleasure, and duty keeps calling her back
Gertrude is the book's most vivid inner life.
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Eugenia seeks a fortune and cannot quite tell the truth
Eugenia is the book's most complicated figure.
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A plain family and a comedy of manners
James builds the book around contrasts anyone can see.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Eugenia, Baroness Münster A charming, clever woman of thirty-three who has crossed the ocean to find a fortune and a new footing in the world.
- Felix Young Eugenia's cheerful younger brother, an easygoing artist who finds delight everywhere and falls for his cousin Gertrude.
- Gertrude Wentworth A restless, imaginative young woman who longs for pleasure and a wider world than her serious family allows.
- Charlotte Wentworth Gertrude's gentle, dutiful older sister, who keeps her feelings tucked away and worries about doing right.
- Mr. Wentworth The pale, conscientious head of the family, who takes every event as a question of duty and worries about mistakes.
- Robert Acton A thoughtful, humorous cousin who made a fortune in China and grows fascinated by the Baroness while doubting her honesty.
- Mr. Brand A tall, earnest young Unitarian minister who wants Gertrude's love and her moral improvement.
- Clifford Wentworth Mr. Wentworth's shy, good-natured son, suspended from Harvard, who is expected to marry his pretty cousin Lizzie.
How it ends (spoiler)
Felix and Gertrude marry and go far away, and their cheerful laughter often echoes back to her father's house. Charlotte marries Mr. Brand, who performs the ceremony for the other couple first. Clifford marries Lizzie Acton. Eugenia never signs the paper, leaves Acton behind, and sails back to Europe. Acton later marries a nice young woman.
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Pytania o Europejczycy
What is The Europeans about?
A baroness and her artist brother come from Europe to visit their American cousins near Boston. Their charm stirs up a serious, quiet family, and the book follows how each person, from a restless daughter to a thoughtful bachelor, responds.
Who is who in The Europeans?
Eugenia is the Baroness Münster and Felix Young is her brother. The Wentworth family includes their uncle, Mr. Wentworth, his daughters Charlotte and Gertrude, and his son Clifford. Robert Acton, his sister Lizzie, and Mr. Brand complete the circle.
What does morganatic marriage mean in The Europeans?
A morganatic marriage unites someone from a ruling house with a commoner, without giving the wife her husband's rank. Eugenia is a baroness through such a marriage, and her family is puzzled by the word.
When was The Europeans written, and is it a true story?
Henry James published it in 1878. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, though it draws on the real contrast between Boston society and the wider world that James knew as an American in Europe.
Is The Europeans easy to read?
Its plot is simple, its chapters are short, and most of it is lively conversation. The narrator's gentle humor and the sharp, witty exchanges make it an inviting comedy to follow.
Zacytuj to wydanie
James, Henry. The Europeans. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-europeans.
James, H. (2026). The Europeans. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-europeans (Original work published 1878)
James, Henry. The Europeans. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-europeans.
@book{james2026europeans,
author = {James, Henry},
title = {The Europeans},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-europeans},
note = {First published 1878}
}
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