Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Die Gesandten
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love close attention to character, conversations and moral shades of grey, and who enjoy Paris and the contrast between America and Europe.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Ambassadors is a novel by Henry James, first published in 1903. It follows Lambert Strether, a middle-aged American editor, who crosses the Atlantic on a mission for the woman he hopes to marry. James wrote it after years of novels and tales about Americans in Europe, and he later called it the best of his works. It gives you a look at one man's mind as it changes.
Strether comes from Woollett, Massachusetts, a small, proper town. His patron, Mrs. Newsome, is a rich widow. She wants him to find her son Chad, who has stayed in Paris far too long, and bring him home to run the family business. Everyone in Woollett believes a bad woman keeps Chad there. Strether expects a simple errand.
But Paris does not behave as Woollett said it would. The book gives you charming, awkward, comic scenes, and a hero who sees more each week. Its action is mostly talk, looking and thinking, yet a great deal is at stake. Let us begin with the errand itself, and with the man chosen to carry it out.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A man is sent to fetch a sonFree
- 2A guide appears and begins to teach
- 3Paris shows a changed young man
- 4Live all you can, says Strether
- 5Madame de Vionnet and the question of Chad
- 6Woollett sends a second embassy
- 7Seeing life is the real subject
- 8Loyalty and self-deception pull against each other
- 9How James tells it and how to read it
Punkt 1 von 9
A man is sent to fetch a son
Lambert Strether is fifty-five, a widower, and a decent man with a modest life. He lives in Woollett, Massachusetts, where he edits a small review paid for by Mrs. Newsome. She is a woman of strict principle and large fortune. Over the years Strether has come to rely on her, and the town takes it for granted that the two will marry.
Mrs. Newsome's son Chad went to Europe some years ago and has not come back. The family business, a manufacturing concern in Woollett, needs him. Mrs. Newsome is sure that some unworthy woman in Paris holds him there. She asks Strether to go over, open the young man's eyes and bring him home.
Strether accepts, and he sees the task as a kind of test. If he succeeds, he will win her gratitude and perhaps something more. He sails with a clear sense of duty and a head full of her opinions. He is also, though he does not say so, a man who has never seen much of the world.
The novel opens just as he lands in Europe. He is already uneasy, for he feels a small pleasure in being away from Woollett, and he distrusts that pleasure. He has an old friend, Waymarsh, an American lawyer, who is meant to meet him there. The scene is set for a man who thinks he knows his purpose, but who has not yet felt what freedom is like.
Notice how much weight the book puts on the first pages. Strether is not a hero in the usual sense. He is a good, anxious, intelligent man with a very small life behind him. Everything that follows tests whether that life was large enough.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Lambert Strether
- A widowed American editor, he travels to Paris for Mrs. Newsome to persuade her son Chad to return home.
- Mrs. Newsome
- A wealthy widow who supports Strether's review, she expects him to bring her son Chad back from Paris.
- Chad Newsome
- Mrs. Newsome's polished son lives in Paris, where his connections challenge Strether's expectations.
- Maria Gostrey
- An American living in Europe, she befriends Strether and helps him interpret unfamiliar manners and relationships.
- Madame de Vionnet
- A French countess separated from her husband, she is close to Chad and devoted to her daughter Jeanne.
- Little Bilham
- A young American artist and friend of Chad, he becomes a sympathetic companion to Strether.
- Sarah Pocock
- Chad's resolute sister comes to Paris representing their mother's expectations and questioning Strether's handling of his mission.
- Waymarsh
- Strether's American lawyer friend distrusts Europe and offers a wary contrast to his companion's growing curiosity.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 169,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 11 h 15 min
- Listening time18 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about Die Gesandten
What is The Ambassadors about?
It follows Lambert Strether, an American editor sent to Paris to bring home Chad Newsome, the son of his wealthy patron. What he finds there changes his view of Chad, of the woman in Chad's life and of his own life.
Who is Madame de Vionnet?
She is a French countess, separated from her husband and mother of a young daughter, Jeanne. She is close to Chad Newsome and has a deep influence on him, and Strether comes to admire her.
What does the title The Ambassadors mean?
Strether is sent as an envoy by Mrs. Newsome, and later a second group follows from Woollett. The word points to people who speak for others and who may find their loyalties changing abroad.
Is The Ambassadors hard to read?
The action is mostly conversation seen through one man's mind. Following Strether's feelings makes it much easier.
What is the main message of The Ambassadors?
The book urges you to live fully and to see clearly, and not let caution or other people's ideas rule your life. It also shows how hard it is to balance freedom against loyalty and duty.