The Pupil

The Pupil is the touching story of a tutor's struggle to help his pupil in spite of a difficult family. The Moreens are an American family wandering around Europe. With pretensions above their ability to fund, their lifestyle is supported by lying, cheating, and bill-jumping. When securing a tutor for their young son, it is no different - they hire him under false pretenses and avoid paying him. The tutor, Pemberton, finds himself drawn to the intelligent and world-weary boy, and wants to help him rise above his family's dissolute life. But Pemberton, himself penniless, cannot afford to work without pay. Will he have to abandon his pupil to save himself? Nuanced, poignant, and darkly humorous, The Pupil is an example of why Henry James is one of the nineteenth-century's most satisfying writers.