Classics · ThoughtfulLambert Strether goes to Paris to bring home the son of his fiancée, the widowed Mrs. Newsome
The Ambassadors
by Henry James
A middle-aged American editor is sent to Paris to fetch his fiancée's son
Lambert Strether is a middle-aged Massachusetts editor, and the story is seen through his eyes. He is engaged to Mrs. Newsome, a widow troubled by reports about the life her son Chad is leading in Paris. She asks Strether to help bring Chad home. The novel is set in Europe, in Paris, which Strether finds socially and aesthetically appealing, and it follows his slow investigation and his growing personal change. Henry James published it in 1903 and considered it his best novel.
More about this book
Who
Lambert Strether, Mrs. Newsome and her son Chad.
World
Paris, France.
What makes it different
The story is seen through Strether's eyes. James considered it his best novel.
Feel
Tragic in tone, with slow, careful changes in its hero.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The AmbassadorsBritannica