"She seemed to be doing nothing as hard as she could." I feel as though, of this whole book, this is the quote which most accurately epitomizes the essence of what I've just read. A lot of nothing going on, to be sure. In fact, the story was unrelentingly snail-like in it's progression; it doesn'...more

This proves that Henry James had a sense of humour if your standards of evidence are really low. I liked it a lot but now I look back on my Henry James years as a kind of affliction, perhaps like reformed dopeheads might glance back wistfully at their marijuana years. And there is, come to think...more

The Reverberator, which was originally published in Macmillan's Magazine in 1888, is about Americans abroad and the increasing intrusiveness of a certain kind of gossipy newspaper. It's also, mostly, about people: how they act, what they say, what motivates them. It's set in Paris, but aside from...more

The title refers to an American newspaper, not a coveted sex toy. A major character, George Flack, pushy, funsy fella in Europe, rollicks the plot by sending a gossipy "Abroad" col home about some Americans in Paris, c 1888. Henry James frowned upon the Press and its vulgar excuse to "Get a story...more

For the reader interested in a light nuptial comedy from James, I would recommend Washington Square over this one. Curiously, James' NY Edition includes The Reverberator and omits W.S., suggesting that the author saw something in the former work that his readers (judging by the response here on G...more

Not exactly outstanding but certainly a must-read in my daring attempt to gain a basic English literary culture. All in all it is a very predictable, slow moving, psychology-driven, Anna Karenina-style high society novel, whose piquant come mainly from what seems to be James' trademark, the descr...more

Henry James and the Scandal Sheet: A Review of The Reverberator (1888), revised 1908

Readers of James have not shown as much interest in this short novel as in many of his other works of fiction. Mistakenly regarded as a comparatively lightweight performance, The Reverberator nevertheless deals f...more

"Echo" to zabawna i zdecydowanie zbyt krótka opowieść o uroczej Amerykance, dwóch pretendentach do jej ręki i intrydze tkanej grubymi nićmi. Nie brakuje tutaj piekielnych knowań ambitnego dziennikarza, misternych planów starszej siostry, drobnych oszustw zakochanego młodzieńca i manipulacji prawd...more

Henry James takes on the 19th century paparazzi in this relatively breezy and straightforward (remember, it *is* Henry James) tale. The usual suspects are gathered by Hank: innocent American girl, rich American father, old European society family, and modern villain upsetting everybody.

The villa...more

This novel is a short retread of territory James had already covered (partially) in _The American_ and _The Europeans_ a decade before this work's publication. The tone is more in a comic register (which, more often than not, is something that James could not really handle well), and concerns the...more