Product Description

When Chadwick Newsome, a young American favoured with fortune and independence, becomes entangled in a liaison dangereux with a Parisian temptress, his overbearing mother deploys her future husband, the elderly, amiable Strether, as an ambassador to engineer his safe return. But seduced by the ambient charms of Paris and the bewitching comtesse de Vionnet, Strether soon deserts to Chadwick's side, initiating a sparkling tale of mistaken intentions, comic accident and false allegiances which culminates in the deployment of another, less fallible ambassador - the cold, glittering, ruthless Sarah Pocock.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107732 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Henry James was born on April 15th 1843 in New York. He was the brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James. He spent a great deal of his life in Europe, especially England. He is best known for his cosmopolitan and often haunting portraits of European and American life. His most famous fictional works include The Portrait of a Lady (1881), What Maisie Knew (1897), The Turn of the Screw (1898), The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). He also wrote literary criticism, most famously The Art of the Fiction (1884). He died on February 28th 1916.

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.