1. Mrs. Newsome never actually appears in the novel. What devices does James employ to make her presence and influence felt throughout the narrative? 2. Various critics have seen Strether’s rejection of Maria Gostrey at the end of the novel as a defect in Strether’s character. Attack or defend Strether’s […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Themes in The Ambassadors
The International Theme Implicit to one degree or another in very nearly everything James wrote is the concept of the international contrast: the juxtaposition of cultures and persons embodying characteristics of those cultures. In particular, this contrast takes the form of the study of the American abroad, the American exposed […]
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Although no one has seriously accepted James’ suggestion that The Ambassadors be read at the rate of five pages a day in order to be fully appreciated, such a statement provides some indication of the difficulties the reader may encounter on first turning to the novel. These difficulties arise primarily […]
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“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?” James asks in his essay “The Art of Fiction.” And, in a notebook entry describing the “germ” of The Ambassadors, James sees “the idea of the tale being the revolution that takes place in […]
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The Ambassadors consists of twelve books written originally for serial publication in monthly installments. James conceived of each of the twelve books as “a rounded medallion, in a series of a dozen, hung, with its effect of high relief, on a wall.” Each book, then, can be viewed as both […]
Read more Critical Essays Structure of The AmbassadorsHenry James Biography
Henry James has been called the first of the great psychological realists in our time. Honored as one of the greatest artists of the novel, he is also regarded as one of America’s most influential critics and literary theorists. During the fifty years of his literary career, which spanned the […]
Read more Henry James BiographyCharacter Analysis Miss Barrace
Miss Barrace is a friend of Chad’s who always turns up at parties and becomes somewhat of a confidante of Strether’s. She is “eminently gay” and “perfectly familiar,” and toward the end of the novel we learn that there is some “relationship” between her and Waymarsh.
Read more Character Analysis Miss BarraceCharacter Analysis Jeanne De Vionnet
We know very little of Jeanne de Vionnet other than the fact that she is the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Madame de Vionnet. Strether assesses her as “an exquisite case of education” but feels she is “delightfully quaint about herself.” Jeanne assumes importance in the novel because Strether believes […]
Read more Character Analysis Jeanne De VionnetCharacter Analysis Mamie Pocock
Mamie Pocock, Jim’s sister, becomes the only member of the opposition (from Woollett) with a mind of her own. It seems at first that she will be a threat to Chad’s relationship with Madame de Vionnet, but we discover she is a sensitive and well-meaning girl who intends to decipher […]
Read more Character Analysis Mamie PocockCharacter Analysis Jim Popock
Jim Pocock, husband of Sarah Pocock and brother to Mamie Pocock, represents the typical American businessman of the times: “Small and fat and constantly facetious, straw-colored and destitute of marks, he would have been practically indistinguishable hadn’t his constant preference for light-grey clothes, for white hats, for very big cigars […]
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