A Critical Study of James's Fiction: The Ambassadors

[[abstract]]The Ambassadors, the first of James's three crowning works to be competed, has proved by far his most popular book with the critics. In this they have followed his lead, since he announced in the preface that it was 'frankly, quite the best, "all round " of all his production. His subject was well fitted to such treatment, since it consisted in Strether's gradual initiation into a world of new values, and a series of small climaxes could therefore best articulate this hero's successive discoveries. What Strethes sees is the entire content, and James thus perfected a device both for framing and for interpreting experience. All art must give the effect of putting a frame around its subject, in the sense that it most select a significant design, by concentrating upon it, thus empower us to share in the essence without being distracted by irrelevant details. In this paper I analyze and criticize the oblong gilt frame in James-TAe Ambassadors