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The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Henry James (Author), Harry Levin (Introduction) "First-time readers should be aware that details of the plot are revealed in this introduction ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Frequently Bought Together

The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics) + What Maisie Knew (Wordsworth Classics) + The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Popular Classics)
Price For All Three: £10.73

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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (27 Mar 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141441321
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141441320
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 44,668 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #10 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > James, Henry
    #60 in  Books > Fiction > Short Stories > Classic Short Story Authors
    #80 in  Books > Fiction > World > French

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Product Description

Review
aHe is as solitary in the history of the novel as Shakespeare in the history of poetry.a
aGraham Greene

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.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
First-time readers should be aware that details of the plot are revealed in this introduction. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics)
80% buy the item featured on this page:
The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics) 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£6.74
What Maisie Knew (Wordsworth Classics)
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What Maisie Knew (Wordsworth Classics) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Popular Classics)
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The Wings of the Dove (Oxford World's Classics)
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult prose, but comic and moving, 15 Aug 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Ambassadors (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
The prose is certainly difficult, but the extra attention it requires from the reader yields benefits: the slightest nuance in the narrative registers. And, as in all late James, these subtle hints and nuances are of the essence.

I was rather surprised as to how funny it often was. But, as with many great comedies - "Twelfth Night", "Don Quixote" - there is a profound sadness under the surface. There is a passage near the beginning where Strether looks back on the disappointments of his life, and, in particular, his failure to communicate with or understand his son, who is now dead. This passage affected me so deeply, that I had to read it a few times before progressing with the rest of the novel.

Strether becomes increasingly aware that life has passed him by, and that in the course of it all, he has missed something: but what it is he has missed he can not specify. He urges the young people around him to live, but his instructions on how to do so are necessarily vague. Eventually, he has to to reject the narrow puritanical code which has fettered his life, but remains to the end a quixotic figure, clinging on to his moral integrity even when all around him appear to lose theirs. The closing episodes of this novel are as moving as anything I have read.

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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The failure to enjoy, 15 Mar 2007
By Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Ambassadors (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
A wealthy US family sends its `ambassadors' to Paris in order to convince an heir to abandon the `life of a pagan' and return home to run the family business.
The theme of Henry James's impeccably written and extremely polished prose is what Nietzsche called the `right or the wrong conjugation': to live or to be lived. `One lives in fine as one can. Still, one has the illusion of freedom; therefore don't be like me, without the memory of that illusion. Don't at any rate miss things out of stupidity. Live!'

For Henry James, people lived in `the corruption of Europe' with its `femmes du monde'; people were lived in the US. It is the Catholic (live like God in France) against the Protestant ethic (`I seem to have a life only for other people').
We are far away here from the Calvinist lesson of `Daisy Miller' who died because she didn't respect the supreme respectability of her class.

The novel advances extremely slowly, is full of suggestions, hints, (mis)understandings and fluctuating feelings. Direct confrontations are subdued to the extreme, and end with a laugh.
The novel has another typical characteristic of James's stories: it's all about `thoroughbred' people, sublime members of the high society. They are presented in a superlative style: prodigious, exquisite, graceful, supreme, transcendent, precious, admirable, beautiful, bright, lovely, magnificent, splendid, brilliant, wonderful ...

With its essential message, this novel is a classic masterpiece.
Not to be missed.
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5 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, a classic tale - Henry James through and through., 14 Dec 2000
This review is from: The Ambassadors (Penguin Popular Classics) (Hardcover)
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.

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