The Ambassadors

Chad Newsome has gone to Paris. He is enchanted by the fascinations of the Old World and caught up in the leisurely craftsmanship and bohemian direction of European worldliness. An older woman of rank and adventurous but subtle skill, Madame de Vionnet, strokes his ego and does everything she can to keep Chad in Paris indefinitely. Chad's mother lives in Woollett, Massachusetts, and wants her son to return to run the family business. Mrs. Newsome is an invalid and cannot go to Paris to find her son herself, so she employs Lambert Strether and Sarah Pocock to return Chad to Massachusetts. Sarah has been to Paris before and is aware of its appeal, so her determination to succeed in this task is firm and unyielding. However, Strether is middle-aged and inspired by the fairy tale of a beautiful life in Europe. Mrs. Newsome has promised to marry Strether if she can bring Chad home. Strether is completely in love with the Parisian character and his charms and has difficulty completing his mission. The drama of restoring Chad to business in America and coming to terms with France's mythological romance leaves the reader unbalanced, trying to regain his footing in the real world. Those involved in Chad's rescue are forced to recognize the deep intimacies of personal attachment and the accepted properties of direct consequences. The successes and failures of such an enterprise are unpredictable. The result of each character's attempt to direct Chad correctly is a strange conglomeration of role reversal, fantasy, and truth.

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Subjects

Man-woman relations, Fiction, Romance, Americans, Historical fiction, Young people, Classical literature, Ambassadors (James, Henry), James, henry, 1843-1916, American fiction (fictional works by an author), Paris (France), fiction, Man-woman relations, fiction, Psychological fiction, American fiction, LITERARY CRITICISM, American, General, Character, Social life and customs, Manners and customs, General Fiction, France, fiction, American Literature, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Fiction in English, Diplomats, Ambassadors, History, Political Fiction, Historical Fiction, general, Long Now Manual for Civilization, Classics, Literary, Historical Characters

Henry James (1843-1916)Places

France, Paris (France), Paris, VietnamTimes

20th CenturyShowing 10 featured editions. See all 231 editions?

Book details

Editing notes

Includes bibliographic references.