The Ambassadors

by Henry James

Overview

When Lambert Strether of Woollett, Massachusetts, is dispatched to Europe by his wealthy fiancée to fetch her son, Chad, home from Paris, the middle-aged innocent is impressed by the young man’s sophistication, the delights of Paris, and Chad’s charming friend, the married Marie de Vionnet. Strether is so taken with European culture that he begins to question the manner in which he’s lived his own life.

Henry James considered The Ambassadors to be the best of his novels, and it is ranked on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century. The novel has been adapted for stage, film, and television.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781443437783
Publisher:	HarperCollins Canada
Publication date:	06/17/2014
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	544
File size:	638 KB

About the Author

Henry James (1843-1916), the son of the religious philosopher Henry James Sr. and brother of the psychologist and philosopher William James, published many important novels including Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, and The Ambassadors.

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"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Henry James.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	Introduction	7
	Note on the Text	31
	Preface to the New York Edition	33
	The Ambassadors	53
	Notes	513

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

From the Publisher