What do you think?
Rate this book
Novels 1903-1911: The Ambassadors / The Golden Bowl / The Outcry
This volume, the sixth and final in The Library of America’s edition of the complete novels of Henry James, brings together two masterpieces of his extraordinary late period—The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904)—as well as his last extended narrative work, The Outcry (1911), a short comic novel of social manners.
The idea for The Ambassadors came from James’s friend William Dean Howells, who told of having given advice to a friend in France: “You have time. You are young. Live!” In James’s novel, a conscientious American, Lambert Strether, travels to Paris to convince Chad Newsome, the son of a friend, to return home and take charge of family business matters. Strether finds Newsome significantly altered—mature and sophisticated, and with a mistress. Strether himself eventually succumbs to the charms of the old World and gives up his mission. Although others arrive from America to attempt to lure Newsome home, only the older man recognizes the true nature of the young man’s transformation.
James described The Golden Bowl as “the most done of my productions—the most composed and constructed and completed.” In the novel an American woman, Maggie Verver, marries an Italian prince, while her wealthy father marries Maggie’s girlhood friend, Charlotte Stant—neither Verver being aware that the Prince and Charlotte have been (and possibly continue to be) lovers. Maggie’s eventual discovery of the nature of that relationship provides the basis for an exploration of the fragility and strength of human ties and further develops what James once called that “complex fate, being an American.” This volume prints the New York Edition texts of The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, which include the prefaces that James wrote for each work as well as the illustrations he commissioned from photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn.
The Outcry, James’s last completed novel, is a crisp and witty comedy of manners adapted from an unproduced stage play he had written in 1909. Its light plot serves as a platform for a more serious discussion of the ethics of art collecting.
Included as an appendix is “The Married Son,” the chapter James contributed to The Whole Family (1908), a multi-author novel conceived by Howells and portraying a fractious family whose struggles mirror the frustrated collaborative efforts of the book’s twelve contributors.
The idea for The Ambassadors came from James’s friend William Dean Howells, who told of having given advice to a friend in France: “You have time. You are young. Live!” In James’s novel, a conscientious American, Lambert Strether, travels to Paris to convince Chad Newsome, the son of a friend, to return home and take charge of family business matters. Strether finds Newsome significantly altered—mature and sophisticated, and with a mistress. Strether himself eventually succumbs to the charms of the old World and gives up his mission. Although others arrive from America to attempt to lure Newsome home, only the older man recognizes the true nature of the young man’s transformation.
James described The Golden Bowl as “the most done of my productions—the most composed and constructed and completed.” In the novel an American woman, Maggie Verver, marries an Italian prince, while her wealthy father marries Maggie’s girlhood friend, Charlotte Stant—neither Verver being aware that the Prince and Charlotte have been (and possibly continue to be) lovers. Maggie’s eventual discovery of the nature of that relationship provides the basis for an exploration of the fragility and strength of human ties and further develops what James once called that “complex fate, being an American.” This volume prints the New York Edition texts of The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, which include the prefaces that James wrote for each work as well as the illustrations he commissioned from photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn.
The Outcry, James’s last completed novel, is a crisp and witty comedy of manners adapted from an unproduced stage play he had written in 1909. Its light plot serves as a platform for a more serious discussion of the ethics of art collecting.
Included as an appendix is “The Married Son,” the chapter James contributed to The Whole Family (1908), a multi-author novel conceived by Howells and portraying a fractious family whose struggles mirror the frustrated collaborative efforts of the book’s twelve contributors.
- GenresFictionLiterature
1197 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1911
10 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Henry James
4,563 books3,953 followersHenry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 6, 2016
The first time I read "The Ambassadors" was in the 1970's when I was working on the psych floor of a Florida hospital. During my 15-minute break, I would seclude myself in the smoke-filled little closet that they called the staff lounge, with the morning's coffee burnt to a thick crust at the bottom of the pot, and read another page of this great Henry James classic. It was pure escapism into a world of complex, beautiful language and images that were about as far removed from the chaos and misery that were out there on the floor as anything I could possibly imagine. Re-reading "The Ambassadors" now, for the second or third time since that first reading, it has lost none of its power or beauty--nor has the craziness outside my door really subsided: it has simply moved from the psych floor to the front page of today's paper. "The Golden Bowl"--every bit as dense and complex as "The Ambassadors"--is almost as good, and "The Outcry", a light comedy adapted from a play that James had written a few years before, is a kind of sweet dessert with which to finish off this remarkable literary meal.
December 3, 2017
Please see my reviews of the three novels included in this volume.
"The Married Son," a chapter James contributed to a multi-author novel in 1908 is a curiosity but, like _The Outcry_, is nowhere near his best work (and certainly not as good as the first two novels in this collection).
This book, like other late volumes in the LOA, contains numerous typographical errors that seriously damage its value to collectors as well as any claims of being "definitive" texts of the works included. The typos are particularly egregious in _The Outcry_, which contains one sentence whose meaning is made inscrutable by the multiple errors it contains. I mourn the death of the copy editors; clearly leaving the task to authors or editors is not sufficient to ensure quality.
"The Married Son," a chapter James contributed to a multi-author novel in 1908 is a curiosity but, like _The Outcry_, is nowhere near his best work (and certainly not as good as the first two novels in this collection).
This book, like other late volumes in the LOA, contains numerous typographical errors that seriously damage its value to collectors as well as any claims of being "definitive" texts of the works included. The typos are particularly egregious in _The Outcry_, which contains one sentence whose meaning is made inscrutable by the multiple errors it contains. I mourn the death of the copy editors; clearly leaving the task to authors or editors is not sufficient to ensure quality.
December 14, 2025
Dana is a fascinating man, and the chronology in the back shows that there's even more to him that isn't in his sailing voyages. A Free Soil Party advocate, friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (later, their kids would marry), and met pretty much everyone else important in civic life in those days. No idea why this edition on Goodreads is listed as by Henry James, which is obviously wrong, but I've already started writing this review, so...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews