The Ambassadors

by Henry James

Overview

Sent from Massachusetts by the formidable Mrs Newsome to recall her son, Chad, from what she assumes to be a corrupt life in Paris, Strether finds his intentions subtly and profoundly transformed as he falls under the spell of the city and of his charge. He is quick to perceive that Chad has been not so much corrupted as refined, and over the course of the hot summer months in Paris he gradually realizes that this discovery and acceptance of Chad's unconventional new lifestyle must alter his own ideals and ambitions. One of Henry James's three final novels, all of which have sharply divided modern critics, The Ambassadors is the finely drawn portrait of a man's late awakening to the importance of morality that is founded not on the dictates of convention but on its value per se.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486115320
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	07/11/2012
Series:	Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	947 KB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Nicola Bradbury is an Honorary Follow of the Department of English Literature, University of Reading and is the author of Henry James: The Later Novels (1979).

Date of Birth:

April 15, 1843

Date of Death:

February 28, 1916

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Attended school in France and Switzerland; Harvard Law School, 1862-63

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Excerpted from "The Ambassadors"
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Copyright © 2008 Henry James.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Table of Contents

"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to," declares the primary "ambassador" of this 1903 novel, adding, "It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?"
In this complex tale of self-discovery, Henry James invokes his favorite theme: the clash of American innocence with European experience. It traces the path of an aging idealist, Lambert Strether, who arrives in Paris intending to persuade his young charge to abandon an obsession with a French woman and return home. Once abroad, however, Strether arrives at unexpected conclusions.
Henry James regarded The Ambassadors as his finest work. Astute, humorous, and intelligent, this masterpiece from the pinnacle of the author's long and brilliant career remains ever vital.

Editorial Reviews

He is as solitary in the history of the novel as Shakespeare in the history of poetry.

Graham Greene

'… the Cambridge Edition reproduces James’s fiction as it originally appeared to his contemporary book-buying public, collectively charting a half century of artistic development, stylistic invention, and cultural history. It gives readers options, and in the case of The Ambassadors the choice of the Cambridge Edition is a deeply satisfying one. … One of the Cambridge Edition's many strengths is the attention the editors pay to textual history and the historical development of James’s fiction within biographical, literary, and cultural contexts … many will agree that the Cambridge Edition is ‘quite the best, 'all round' edition …' Sarah Wadsworth, Review of English Studies

'[One of] two handsome volumes in their Cambridge maroon cloth covers with gilt stamping on the binding and James’s familiar signature on the covers are crucial additions to the resources scholars will use for generations to study the greatest novelist of the modern period.' John Carlos Rowe, The Henry James Review

'Given that the 'textual condition' of The Ambassadors (to use McGann’s phrase) is an excursion into chaos (to use James’s phrase), Nicola Bradbury should be crowned in laurels for guiding us with such precision through its various incarnations. The Cambridge edition gives us the evolution of The Ambassadors from 'dropped seed', as James called it, to full-flowering.' Frances Wilson, The Times Literary Supplement

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