Henry James

The American by Henry James Annotated Edition

The novel opens in Paris in May 1868. Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman in his mid-thirties is visiting the Louvre museum, but becomes overwhelmed by the number of paintings he is seeing. He notices a young woman making a copy of one of the paintings and strikes up a conversation with her, offering to buy the copy. The young woman, who is named Noemie Nioche, persuades him to pay a high price, and also introduces him to her father, who offers to give Newman French lessons.