Henry James’s The American (1877) has been identified by critics as the first international novel. As such, it initiates the literary genre of Americans in Paris. It inaugurates themes and stereotypes that subsequent writers and film and television creative teams will develop, and it also builds on and corrects stereotypes about Americans in Paris that already existed in nineteenth-century French culture. James used The American to counter French notions that Americans were wild savages or the miraculous rich benefactor whom he labeled the “regular old oncle de comédie” or “uncle in comedy.” James’s novel instead seeks to demonstrate the moral superiority and integrity, as opposed to physical prowess, of the American type in the face of Parisian misunderstanding. At the same time, this moral superiority is a form of American exceptionalism, a belief that the American way is unique and inherently the best. While later treatments of the American in Paris, specifically Emily in Paris, treat American exceptionalism less critically, The American explores the American exceptionalism manifested by Americans in Paris with nuance and skepticism.