Henry James's third novel is an exploration of his most powerful, perennial theme - the clash between European and American cultures, the Old World and the New.Christopher Newman, a 'self-made' American millionaire in France, falls in love with the beautiful aristocratic Claire de Bellegarde.Her family, however, taken aback by his brash American manner, rejects his proposal of marriage.When Newman discovers a guilty secret in the Bellegardes' past, he confronts a moral dilemma: Should he expose them and thus gain his revenge?James's masterly early work is at once a social comedy, a melodramatic romance and a realistic novel of manners.