The Ambassadors (The Unabridged Edition) (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. A darkly comic Parisian journey of cultural clash, self-discovery, and learning to trust one's own judgmentBy Henry James
Length20h 10m
About this audiobook
The Ambassadors is one of Henry James's late masterpieces, a novel of consciousness in which plot yields to perception, hesitation, and moral nuance. Centered on Lambert Strether's mission to retrieve young Chad Newsome from Paris for his formidable American family, the book becomes an intricate study of cultural encounter, belated self-discovery, and the seductive ambiguities of European refinement. Its famously elaborate syntax, indirect dialogue, and shifting psychological focus place it at the threshold of modernist fiction while retaining the social comedy and ethical scrutiny of the nineteenth-century novel. Henry James, born in New York in 1843 and long resident in Europe, was uniquely positioned to dramatize the tensions between American innocence and Old World complexity. His own expatriate life, cosmopolitan education, and fascination with manners, perception, and moral responsibility deeply inform the novel. In Strether, James created one of his most searching figures: an emissary who becomes less an agent of command than a witness to life's missed possibilities. This unabridged edition is recommended for readers who value psychological depth, stylistic precision, and fiction that rewards patient attention. It is essential for admirers of literary realism, early modernism, and the art of moral ambiguity.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes.
- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.
- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing.
- An Author Biography reveals milestones in the author's life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text.
- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.
- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (31K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph, Amazon
GenreLiterary Classics, General Fiction
Length20 hrs 10 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJul 31, 2017
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Ambassadors (The Unabridged Edition) (Annotated)
26Chapter II
2Introduction
27Chapter III
3Synopsis
28Book Seventh
4Historical Context
29Chapter I
5Author Biography
30Chapter II
Mostrar todos os capítulosVer menos
6Preface
31Chapter III
7Book First
32Book Eigth
8Chapter I
33Chapter I
9Chapter II
34Chapter II
10Chapter III
35Chapter III
11Book Second
36Book Ninth
12Chapter I
37Chapter I
13Chapter II
38Chapter II
14Book Third
39Chapter III
15Chapter I
40Book Tenth
16Chapter II
41Chapter I
17Book Fourth
42Chapter II
18Chapter I
43Chapter III
19Chapter II
44Book Eleventh
20Book Fifth
45Chapter I
21Chapter I
46Chapter II
22Chapter II
47Chapter III
23Chapter III
48Chapter IV
24Book Sixth
49Book Twelfh
25Chapter I
50Chapter I
The ReverberatorHenry James5h 28m3.6 (962)$12 · $0.00
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMAHenry James24h 16m3.8 (4.5K)$1.99 · $0.00
WHAT MAISIE KNEWHenry James11h 50m3.7 (33.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Harvard Fiction Classics in 20 Volumes (Complete Collection)Henry James, George Eliot, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Edward Everett Hale, Victor Hugo, Honoré Balzac, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Juan Valera, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander L. Kielland384h 16m4.2 (264)$1.99 · $0.00
What Maisie KnewHenry James8h 46m3.8 (28.3K)$16 · $0.00
The Wheel of TimeHenry James1h 56m2.9 (27)$7 · $0.00
The Awkward AgeHenry James13h 32m3.6 (4.5K)$10 · $0.00
Lord BeaupreHenry James2h 13m3.2 (24)$7 · $0.00
The Turn of the ScrewHenry James4h 35m3.6 (344.6K)$16 · $0.00
The Time Traveler's Bookshelf: Eight Unforgettable BooksHenry James, Fritz Leiber, Murray Leinster, Robert F. Young, Andre Norton, Philip K. Dick, Clifford D. Simak, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman32h 27m$1.99 · $0.00
Daisy MillerHenry James2h 45m$1.99 · $0.00
El Retrato de una DamaHenry James28h 11m$1.99 · $0.00
Gesammelte WerkeHenry James118h 13m4.3 (12)$1.50 · $0.00
10 Iconic Gilded Age NovelsHenry James, Theodore Dreiser, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Robert Barr, Louisa May Alcott140h 49m$1.99
Los papeles de AspernHenry James8h 40m4.0 (33.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
20 Must Read Ghost NovelsHenry James, Horace Walpole, Gaston Leroux, Francis Marion Crawford, Emily Brontë, Ann Ward Radcliffe, Frederick Marryat, H. P. Lovecraft, Frederic Henry Balfour, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth, William De Morgan, John Meade Falkner, Wilkie Collins, Charles Willing Beale, Duchess, Paul Dickey, Charles Goddard, Eliza Parsons, Richard Marsh, William Hope Hodgson207h 8m4.0 (19)$1.99
The Turn of the Screw (Annotated)Henry James6h 27m3.4 (185.5K)$2 · $0.00
The Wings of the Dove + The Ambassadors + What Maisie Knew + The Turn of the Screw (Annotated)Henry James55h 13m4.5 (24)$2 · $0.00
Poor Richard (Annotated)Henry James4h 20m3.9 (590)$2 · $0.00
The Bostonians (Annotated)Henry James19h 25m$2 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Pride & Prejudice (Annotated)Jane Austen15h 10m4.7 (13.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories: The Complete Collection (33 Books)P. G. Wodehouse21h 57m4.7 (2.8K)$15 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
The Complete Histories / History Plays of William Shakespeare (Annotated)William Shakespeare29h 42m4.6 (2.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 50m4.6 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust16h 8m4.5 (10.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (670)$28 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
You may also like
The AmbassadorsHenry James17h 43m3.9 (31.3K)$2.30
Roderick HudsonHenry James14h 30m3.8 (1.2K)$2.30 · $0.00
The AmbassadorsHenry James20h 1m3.7 (19.7K)$2 · $0.00
Who I AmPete Townshend17h 56m3.9 (11.1K)$40 · $0.00
George Silverman's ExplanationCharles Dickens1h 11m3.5 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
OF HUMAN BONDAGEWilliam Somerset Maugham29h 53m4.2 (82.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
An AutobiographyMohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi18h 43m4.2 (131.3K)$28
The GameNeil Strauss9h 28m3.8 (159.6K)$29 · $0.00
Martin EdenJack London15h 5m4.4 (70.8K)$4 · $0.00
Of Human Bondage (The Unabridged Autobiographical Novel) (Annotated)William Somerset Maugham29h 57m4.2 (197K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Damnation of Theron WareHarold Frederic13h 56m3.9 (2K)$23
Gutenberg's ApprenticeAlix Christie14h 10m3.7 (4.5K)$33 · $0.00
10% Happier 10th AnniversaryDan Harris9h 28m4.1 (137.1K)$29 · $0.00
The Vegas DiariesHolly Madison8h 9m3.6 (6.8K)$26 · $0.00
The Gulf of LionsCaitlin Shetterly10h 9m4.1 (345)$29 · $0.00
Tono-BungayHerbert George Wells16h 18m3.7 (3.7K)$1 · $0.00
The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Annotated)Mahatma Gandhi20h 19m4.3 (77.8K)$2 · $0.00
A Corner of DestinyGrace Livingston Hill3h 9m4.6 (681)$1.20 · $0.00
Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager Revised EditionKen Blanchard, Susan Fowler, Laurence Hawkins2h 40m4.2 (4.2K)$18 · $0.00
The Licentiate Vidriera (Doctor Glass-Case) (Annotated)Miguel de Cervantes2h 38m3.7 (1.4K)$1.99 · $0.00