Newman’s Nineteenth-Century Grand Tour

The American has acclaimed this work as James’s first mature novel.Underneath the "International Theme",it is a novel about Newman’s Grand Tour.The Grand Tour,a European travelling tradition which contains geographical elements in itself,deserves meticulous attention from the perspective of the imaginative geography in particular.This thesis proposes to explore the reasons for Newman’s Grand Tour,geographical elements and the power relation and cultural aspect from the perspective of imaginative geography,analyzing the America West,the Louvre and the Bellegarde house to disclose how the geographical elements result in the failure of Newman’s Grand TourThe first chapter raises the question why Newman would like to have a Grand Tour,discussing the West and Newman’s geographical imagination about Europe Newman’s mobility,a characteristic of his Westernness,is a result of his service in the Civil War and the motive for going to Europe.This geographical imagination was inspired by a renown guidebook.Behind this European travel vogue lies the American social distinction which made the European travel as a thing to win their social statue in the America,especially those "New Rich" who made fortune in the WestChapter Two and Chapter Three address the question:what is James’s purpose of in putting Newman at the Louvre at the outset and making the main story happen in the place of the Bellegarde house.In chapter Two,the Louvre becoming the symbol of the highest European civilization is a result of the guidebook description and its illustrations.It is the discrepancy between the imagination and the real place that Newman was totally overwhelmed by the place and he turned to the art within it.The dynamic relationship between Newman and the Louvre reflect the power relationship between the Europe and the tourists.Chapter three discusses the Bellegarde house and the people within it as the real geographical representative of the classic European upper-class.The house becomes an architectural construction of the European upper-class values.Two associations of the place,the theatre and the convent,give away the end in advance that Newman could never succeed in his European Grand Tour.