It's unclear why even many Henry James fans aren't familiar with this wicked early work, as it's James at his scathing best --- piercing, elegant, and ahead of his time. <br><br>The story of an American hack journalist in Europe, <i>The Reverberator </i>is an early example of James' fascination with Americans confronting Europe's version of civilized society. Yet here he gives the theme a sly twist, as the Europeans find themselves enamored with a particularly uncivil brand of Americanism ...<br><br>George Flack, a rising star in the scandal-mongering new American journalism of the 1880s, finds himself posted to Paris as a foreign correspondent for The Reverberator. And, like half of Paris, he finds himself in love with the beautiful but naïve --- and engaged --- American girl Francie Dosson. But when Francie innocently reveals something about her fiancé's snobby family to Flack, Francie, her fiancé, and all of Paris suddenly find themselves in a public scandal of a type not seen before in the world's most sophisticated city.<br><br>Informed, no doubt, by James own, miserable experience as a Paris-based correspondent for the <i>New York Tribune</i>, <i>The Reverberator</i> features his normal lucid and penetrating prose, although less complicated than his later prose --- and with a bit of extra zing his fans may not expect. <br><br><br><b>ebook ISBN: 978-1-61219-157-7</b>