The Ambassadors

The importance of these variants and the conditions under which thenovel was written and revised—conditions leading to the continuingcontroversy over the order of the chapters—are discussed in theeditor’s rewritten and updated essay on editions and revisions of TheAmbassadors.

As often as possible, the annotations to the text have been made byreferring to James’s other writings.

A map of Strether’s Paris and a virtually unknown photograph of James,which originally appeared with the serial of The Ambassadors, have beenadded to this Second Edition, and the original frontispieces to the NewYork Edition of the novel have been reproduced in their proper sequencefor the first time.

＂The Author on the Novel＂ contains James’s notebook entries on theinspiration for The Ambassadors as well as the long, remarkablepreliminary statement that the author drew up before writing his novel.The selection of James’s letters on The Ambassadors has also beenexpanded for the Second Edition.

＂Criticism＂ is comprised of fourteen essays that represent more thanseventy years of analysis of The Ambassadors, by H. M. Alden, PercyLubbock, E. M. Forster, F. O. Matthiessen, F. R. Leavis, Joseph WarrenBeach, Joan Bennett, Leon Edel, Ian Watt, Sallie Sears, NicolaBradbury, Maud Ellmann, Millicent Bell, and Philip Fisher.

A Chronology and an expanded Selected Bibliography are also included.