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The Ambassadors
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Lambert Strether, a mild, middle-aged American of no particular achievements, is dispatched to Paris from the manufacturing empire of Woollett, Massachusetts. The mission conferred on him by his august patron, Mrs. Newsome, is to discover what, or who, is keeping her son Chad in the notorious city of pleasure and to bring him home. But Strether finds Chad transformed by the influence of a remarkable woman. And as the Parisian spring advances, he himself succumbs to the allure of the "vast bright Babylon" and to the mysterious charm of Madame de Vionnet.
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What listeners say about The Ambassadors
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Patricia
- 01-29-13
Henry James can be hard to follow but worth it
With Henry James things move at a glacial pace. I happen to be a very fast reader and would be tempted to gobble up the plot and try to skip the delays, so having this read to me is much better as I get the full effect. For example, two people meet in a room and you are dying to know what they will say to each other, but James is slow to tell you - he meticulously describes the surroundings, the atmosphere, what the characters are thinking, etc. letting the tension build almost unbearably - and then they say almost nothing! The writing is exquisite - if painfully slow - and eventually I was just dying to know where this was going so I had to keep extending my walks so I could listen to more!
The plot involves a main character (the "ambassador") who has been sent from New England to London to bring back the family's son and heir to take up the family business back home. He slowly - and I mean slowly - discovers what the young man is up to. There are many other fascinating characters involved. A great deal of the action takes place in Paris. I won't give away any more. If you like Henry James or period pieces and have the patience to wait out a good story, you will enjoy it.
The reader does a beautiful job - no excessive acting, just beautiful reading with meaning. Perfect for this text. I'll look for more by Stephen Hoye.
10 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- marian
- 04-28-13
Almost Unlistenable
Would you try another book from Henry James and/or Stephen Hoye?
Stephen Hoye is not cut out to read James' sentences. His delivery of each sentence is identical, in spite of distinct meanings. It feels as if Hoye experiences James' prose as a chore. I'm very disappointed, and will avoid this narrator.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
Classic Jamesian intrigue and deft manipulation.
How could the performance have been better?
If Simon Prebble had read it, or someone who could contend with James' extraordinary syntax.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
The reading sparked utter annoyance - pure exasperation. How is it that, hearing the first few chapters, the producers did not hire a different reader?
Any additional comments?
Take care when assigning a reader to James. His writing is rich but demanding.
8 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Erin Sjostrom
- 02-10-14
Hoo boy, that's a lotta work
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
An editor. Fewer run-on sentences. Being able to tell when the sentence is finally, dear god, over.
Has The Ambassadors turned you off from other books in this genre?
I didn't know excruciating was a genre.
What didn’t you like about Stephen Hoye’s performance?
I only speak ill of the dead.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Ambassadors?
Any sentence that uses the word "serenest" and the like. Any sentence ending in a preposition. Applying these two rules would turn this into a servicable short story.
Any additional comments?
I chose this book after finishing All the Great Prizes, the biography of John Hay. Hay was one of Lincoln's two secretaries and lived an astounding life. Henry James was one of his friends and Hay loved this book -- or claimed he did. If sincere, Hay gives bad literary advice.
5 people found this helpful
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Story
- Edwina Burke
- 04-13-18
A Masterpiece
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This book is a treasure for anyone who loves the English language.
What did you like best about this story?
Given the deep, patient attention that James' prose demands, this recording is sublime. In perfectly constructed sentences delivered with Shakespearean cadence, James' insights into human nature unfold like hothouse flowers. But don't look for resolution--as in life, there are none in The Ambassadors.
Have you listened to any of Stephen Hoye’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Hoye is new to me, but I'll look for his work in the future.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
An American in Paris Gets Lost in Translation
1 person found this helpful
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- Stephen
- 06-07-17
The Ambassadors - Classic Henry James
Performance: Very good, no issues.
Content: Classic Henry James. Slow action, detailed interior discussion and a low about of dialogue compare to internal reflections. Iffy, if I would read it again.
1 person found this helpful
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- doggedstrength
- 12-01-20
True exaltation, the kind that's earned
One of the greatest novels ever written. Nearly all of life is here. Struggle, doubt, beauty, hope and resolution, or, perhaps more accurately, as near as we ever come to honestly, haltingly grasping those shifting realities. Set down in language that not only deepens consciousness but expands it. This book's nagging questions and shimmering sublimities will stay with you for the rest of your days.
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- nicolette king
- 08-02-15
Much impressed with first audio book
Henry James is difficult to read for oneself but Stephen Hoye does an excellent job in exactly the right accent. The reading is clear, expressive, and steady. The plot is good and is unfolding in an unhurried Jamesian fashion.Haven't finished it yet but want to do so soon. A very good first impression of what Audible has to offer.
4 people found this helpful
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Story
James considers this book to be his masterpiece! Various "ambassadors" are sent to Paris to persuade Chad Newsome to return to his New England town and attend to his business interests there. One of these envoys, Lambert Strether, is so impressed with Chad's suavity and charm that he advises him to stay with Mme. de Vionnet in France.
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A dense, intricate, beautiful work
- By Eugene on 11-03-17
By: Henry James
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The Golden Bowl
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 25 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Wealthy Maggie Verver has everything she could ever ask for - except a husband and a title. While in Italy, acquiring art for his museum back in the States, Maggie’s millionaire father, Adam, decides to remedy this and acquire a husband for Maggie. Enter Prince Amerigo, of a titled but now poor aristocratic Florentine family. Amerigo is the perfect candidate.
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If you don't love this book, it's your fault
- By Viewer on 09-14-18
By: Henry James
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The Wings of the Dove
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Milly Theale is a young, beautiful, and fabulously wealthy American. When she arrives in London and meets the equally beautiful but impoverished Kate Croy, they form an intimate friendship. But nothing is as it seems: materialism, romance, self-delusion, and ultimately fatal illness insidiously contaminate the glamorous social whirl.
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Not an easy read but SO worth it!
- By Julie Gray on 10-31-17
By: Henry James
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The Spoils of Poynton
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Maureen O'Brien
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Mrs Gereth, a wealthy widow, is dreading the day that her son, Owen, gets married. She hopes that he will marry a woman who will appreciate their home and all of its treasures as she does. So she enlists the help of Fleda Vetch to try to corrupt the impending marriage of her son and Mona Brigstock - a philistine who is determined to marry Owen in order to inherit Mrs Gereth’s valuable possessions and home by any means. Meanwhile, Fleda hides her real feelings towards Owen. Even when he ends up feeling the same way, Fleda cannot bring herself to marry him as this would force him to break his engagement to Mona, and thus betray all of her own ideals.
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Outstanding
- By LCantoni on 07-31-10
By: Henry James
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The Princess Casamassima
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Hyacinth Robinson, drawn into the London underworld of revolutionary politics, vows to assassinate an enemy of the people. His exposure to the Princess Casamassima's world of art, nobility, and beauty leads him to lose faith in his cause.
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Empathy Armed?
- By C. Bailey on 03-26-08
By: Henry James
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The Ambassadors
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Ambassadors is the story of early 20th century American Puritanism and how such attitudes restrict the joy of living a full life. When Lewis Strether's widowed fiancé, Mrs. Newsome, sends him to Paris to convince her wayward son, Chad, to return to Massachusetts and take his place in the family business, life gets complicated.
By: Henry James
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The Ambassadors
- America's Diplomats on the Front Lines
- By: Paul Richter
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Richter’s account of the role of America’s diplomats in the wars in the Middle East and the Muslim world supplies a crucial and - until now - missing part of how these wars are being fought. An important addition to appreciating the roles of these diplomats, and an in-depth look into the complexity and length of these wars and nation-building, The Ambassadors is a critical piece of modern day history.
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A Must Read about America's Best Diplomats
- By DJH on 02-10-20
By: Paul Richter
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The Turn of the Screw
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Emma Thompson, Richard Armitage - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy winner Emma Thompson lends her immense talent and experienced voice to Henry James' Gothic ghost tale, The Turn of the Screw. When a governess is hired to care for two children at a British country estate, she begins to sense an otherworldly presence around the grounds. Are they really ghosts she's seeing? Or is something far more sinister at work?
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Great, but Mightn't be the Best on Audible
- By Gillian on 03-16-16
By: Henry James
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The Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 21 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as "a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action". She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path.
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Bleak and believable
- By Karen on 04-26-09
By: Henry James
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Daisy Miller
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Ellie Kendrick
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Travelling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? When she strikes up an intimate friendship with an urbane young Italian, her flat refusal to observe the codes of respectable behaviour leave her perilously exposed.
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loved the story
- By Dominick Garcez on 02-18-23
By: Henry James
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The Bostonians
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, a decade after the Civil War, The Bostonians tells the story of two cousins who battle for the affections of and control over an enchanting prophetess. While visiting his cousin Olive Chancellor, a fierce feminist deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, Basil Ransom, a Confederate Civil War veteran turned lawyer, attends a speech by the talented young orator Verena Tarrant. Basil quickly falls in love with Verena, although he disagrees with her politics; Olive, however, sees her as the future of the women's rights movement.
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A satire that turns tragic
- By Tad Davis on 08-23-20
By: Henry James
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The Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: John Wood
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors, declaring that she will never marry. It is only when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the cultivated but worthless Gilbert Osmond that she discovers that wealth is a two-edged sword.
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Highly recommended
- By David on 06-26-10
By: Henry James