Product Description

Concerned that her son Chad may have become involved with a woman of dubious reputation, the formidable Mrs Newsome sends her ‘ambassador’ Strether from Massachusetts to Paris to extricate him. Strether’s mission, however, is gradually undermined as he falls under the spell of the city and finds Chad refined rather than corrupted by its influence and that of his charming companion, the comtesse de Vionnet. As the summer wears on, Mrs Newsome comes to the conclusion that she must send another envoy to Paris to confront the errant Chad, and a Strether whose view of the world has changed profoundly. James’s favourite novel and one of the greatest of his late works, The Ambassadors is a subtle and often witty exploration of different American responses to a European environment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130457 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

About the Author
Henry James was born in 1843 in new York, with Scottish and Irish ancestry. Having studied in New York and Europe, he became a lawyer, and started writing in 1865. Spending time in Paris he knew Flaubert and Turgenev, before moving to London and then Sussex. Harry Levin has written on James Joyce and Henry James for the Penguin Classics.

Customer Reviews

Mr James and His Rebarbative Periphrastic Circumambages.
Frankly, this book drove me up the wall. I came to it on the joyous wave of 'Portrait of a Lady' and the straightforward pleasures of 'Washington Square' and ran smiling into the impenetrable wall of James' prose. Everything you have heard about the dense thickets of grammar are true, and I confess I lacked the necessary machete of patience. All characters live in a state of constant allusion and circumlocution, and are forever describing each other: "Of course, she's wonderful...", "Of course, he is the most charming...", "Of course, she is magnificent...'" without the reader ever quite being allowed to actually see any wonder or charm or magnificence being employed by any of the people so described.

If this is to be your first Henry James experience, it shouldn't be. 'Portrait of a Lady', on the other hand, quivers with delightfulness.

Excellent, a classic tale - Henry James through and through.
I would recomend any of the books by Henry James, he is a excellent story teller, he has the abilty to draw you into the story and capture your sole attention.

A book you just don't want to put down.