James Henry : Ambassadors (Sc)

Jr. James Henry

ISBN 10: 0451517466 / ISBN 13: 9780451517463

Published by Signet, 1962

About this Item

Spine creased, cover worn, owner's inscription, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Seller Inventory # pb001-818797

Bibliographic Details

• Title: James Henry : Ambassadors (Sc)
• Publisher: Signet
• Publication Date: 1962
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451517466
• ISBN 13: 9780451517463
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The Ambassadors is a dark comedy initially published in 1903 and was considered by Henry James himself his best work.

Review

The Ambassadors, which Henry James considered his best work, is the most exquisite refinement of his favorite theme: the collision of American innocence with European experience. This time, James recounts the continental journey of Louis Lambert Strether--a fiftysomething man of the world who has been dispatched abroad by a rich widow, Mrs. Newsome. His mission: to save her son Chadwick from the clutches of a wicked (i.e., European) woman, and to convince the prodigal to return to Woollett, Massachusetts. Instead, this all-American envoy finds Europe growing on him. Strether also becomes involved in a very Jamesian "relation" with the fascinating Miss Maria Gostrey, a fellow American and informal Sacajawea to her compatriots. Clearly Paris has "improved" Chad beyond recognition, and convincing him to return to the U.S. is going to be a very, very hard sell. Suspense, of course, is hardly James's stock-in-trade. But there is no more meticulous mapper of tone and atmosphere, nuance and implication. His hyper-refined characters are at their best in dialogue, particularly when they're exchanging morsels of gossip. Astute, funny, and relentlessly intelligent, James amply fulfills his own description of the novelist as a person upon whom nothing is lost. --Rhian Ellis