The Ambassadors

Lambert Strether, a middle-aged New Englander from Woollett, Massachusetts, is sent to Paris by the wealthy widow Mrs Newsome to bring home her son Chad, who has lingered in Europe instead of joining the family business. Strether finds Chad polished by the city and attached to Madame de Vionnet, and the errand becomes a test of his own judgment. Mrs Newsome's daughter Sarah Pocock arrives as a stricter envoy. Friendship with Maria Gostrey, the contrast between Woollett's moral bookkeeping and Parisian social life, and Strether's growing unwillingness to enforce the family's claim drive the action. First published in 1903, the novel is a study of delayed recognition rather than a guidebook to Paris.

Bound in image blocked yellow cloth. Black slipcase.