the old, Lambert Strether. She bows to Chad’s Parisian infatuation; he bows to his own rectitude in denying for himself both Woollett and Paris. He cannot marry Mrs. Newsome and he will not pursue his love for the Frenchwoman.

Transatlantic Travel
The advent of the Clipper ship's dominance was short-lived once Robert Fulton introduced a successful steamboat in 1807. Steamboats quickly transformed inland transportation. Along with the construction of canals, they ushered in an era of declining shipping costs. By 1819, ocean vessels began incorporating engines, though it wasn't until the Cunard Line initiated regular European service in the 1840s that they posed a real challenge to sail power. By the 1870s, advancements in boilers and propellers led to the development of the triple-expansion steam engine, which required less fuel. Further innovations in the 1890s, particularly with the adoption of the turbine, reduced the travel time between the United States and Europe to just a week. This increase in transatlantic speed for goods and passengers significantly boosted global trade.

Industrialization
By the late nineteenth century, industrialization had reached a point of inertia. Heavy industries, such as coal mining and iron production, had largely been overtaken by steel, thanks to the Bessemer process, and were controlled by large conglomerates like U.S. Steel. Other aspects of life were also industrialized. Transportation shifted from foot and horse to railroads, or, for the wealthy, early automobiles. Flour was produced in major milling hubs like Minneapolis, while meat processing thrived in Chicago, with both being distributed by rail to department and chain stores. However, industrial growth and efficiency faced challenges, especially during the global economic downturn from 1873 to 1896. Advertising became crucial, utilizing catalogs, roadside billboards, and even parades to capture the attention of the emerging mass market.

France
France harbored imperial ambitions, and its manufacturing sector was growing. A mass society was forming, with Paris as the cultural epicenter of the world. Under the Third Republic, the introduction of nationwide compulsory education in 1885 created a generation of French citizens who learned the same subjects in a uniform educational setting. This generation also developed a shared sense of patriotism due to mandatory military service. Similar to other industrialized nations, the railroad and steam-powered rotary printing press facilitated the creation of an integrated nation-state. Within this context, two significant events helped shape mass politics and the emergence of a genuinely secular society.

First, General Georges Boulanger attempted to topple the Third Republic with a sophisticated political campaign that capitalized on these societal developments. By 1886, he had gained considerable recognition, with support from right-wingers, monarchists, and big business. His platform remained vague, yet by 1889, he had alarmed the established power structures. Although the Third Republic was never truly at risk of falling, he fled the country amid scandal allegations. He left behind a political machine that, while primitive by late twentieth-century American standards, was larger than any other mass political movement at the time.

This highly reactionary apparatus was poised for action when the Dreyfus affair erupted in 1894. France harbored a more intense strain of anti-Semitism than any other European nation until Hitler's ascent in Germany. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused of espionage and exiled to Devil's Island in South America following a conviction for treason. The trial laid bare France's anti-Semitic tendencies and highlighted the power of the media and grassroots movements to sway national politics. Ultimately, Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated in the military, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The New Imperialism
A series of political and technological advancements contributed to the emergence of New Imperialism. Faster ships shrank the world, superior weaponry gave Europeans the upper hand (with the exception of Adowa), Quinine rendered the threat of malaria ineffective, and a prevailing belief in the white man's duty to civilize and dominate the world emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century. From 1875 to the brink of WWI, European countries engaged in a fierce competition for control over Africa. Wealthy Europeans and thrill-seekers used the globe as their playground, hunting for trophies, plundering treasures, and collecting scientific data. Their stories, findings, and wealth reinforced the notion of European superiority over other cultures.

The Boer War
Britain boasted the largest empire, but by the late nineteenth century, its grip on its territories was becoming increasingly tenuous. The British prioritized profitable regions like India (the only colony to generate a profit) and areas rich in natural resources. Afrikaners (descendants of Dutch settlers) claimed the world's largest gold reserves in South Africa, which Britain considered its rightful possession. This rivalry intensified when Germany, openly supportive of the Afrikaners, annexed Namibia in 1884. British entrepreneurs such as Cecil Rhodes invested in South African mines and plotted to overthrow the Afrikaners to establish British rule. Their 1895 attempt, however, was unsuccessful.

Tensions escalated until the Afrikaners declared war on Britain in 1899. Britain deployed 350,000 soldiers to combat 65,000 Afrikaners in a prolonged guerrilla conflict. By 1902, after enduring significant casualties and facing international condemnation, the British accepted the Afrikaners' surrender, leading to the creation of South Africa. The terms of this peace laid the groundwork for an eventual independent apartheid state governed by the Afrikaners.

The Psychological Novel
This type of fiction explores the effects of external events on a character, as well as the inner thoughts and emotions that drive them. In the early days of the novel, character psychology was often explicitly stated. For instance, Robinson Crusoe's anxious mind was clearly described, as was the fear of death in Tristram Shandy. However, as interest in criminal psychology grew, novels became more psychologically complex. American and Russian detective stories began to explore psychological motives, reflecting contemporary scientific theories. By the end of the nineteenth century, authors like George Eliot and Gustave Flaubert were crafting psychological novels about everyday individuals. In the twentieth century, authors such as James Joyce, William Faulkner, and Virginia Woolf took the psychological novel to new heights.

Henry James introduced a technique in this genre that involved maintaining a concentrated focus on a single mind. He employed a method known as erlebte Rede or le style indirect libre, which plays with indirect speech. Traditional narration using indirect speech typically assesses a character's thoughts with phrases like “he thought [blank].” However, in erlebte Rede, the narrator guides the reader to a conclusion without being overt. In such novels, the narrator cuts through the elaborate language and metaphors the character might use to express their thoughts. The reader must draw their own conclusions. For example, the narrator leaves the irony of the phrase “in the same boat” at the novel's end unspoken. Some nuances are best left implied, resulting in a deeper focus on an individual's mental processes as they interact with their environment.

Realism
Henry James and his friend William Dean Howells introduced the nineteenth-century idea that art could accurately reflect life into American literature. In this novel, James demonstrates that realist techniques do not always lead to straightforward interpretations. He concentrated on capturing Strether's psychological experiences naturally. There is no theoretical jargon or elaborate explanation of Strether’s mental state—just a direct account of how Strether’s mind processes his experiences based on his linguistic framework.

James also exemplifies realism through dialogue. His characters, who are highly educated and witty, engage in conversations where obvious facts are left unspoken. One character's thoughts are often completed by another, as they try to outpace each other with speculations. Readers who follow these exchanges and understand the allusions in the descriptions of Strether’s mind are rewarded with amusement:

Considering how many pieces had to fit together, everything quickly fell into place in Strether’s mind. He was aware of the events that had occurred and those likely to happen; and it was all quite amusing.

Ficelle
The term Ficelle originates from theater and refers to what we now know as "special effects." James uses this term to describe characters who help solidify the novel's structure. These characters function similarly to a letter or piece of evidence in a detective story; they provide the reader with information that would otherwise be hidden, all without relying on an all-knowing narrator or internal monologues. Therefore, Mrs. Newsome does not qualify as a ficelle because she never makes an appearance. A ficelle must be present because interaction with Strether activates them. Miss Gostrey is the quintessential ficelle in the novel, though Waymarsh and Bilham occasionally serve as ficelles. When Strether engages the ficelle, the reader receives insights while Strether clarifies his own thoughts. As Strether explains to Maria, the ficelle exists "to see me through . . . the experience."

Point of View
The novel's excellence hinges on successfully employing a third-person narrator intertwined with the perspective of a single character: Strether. James dismisses the obvious choice of a first-person narrative (his reasoning is elaborated in the novel’s preface) to enjoy the freedom and dependability of third-person narration while maintaining a concentrated focus on one character's psychology. He also ensures the novel remains in prose, avoiding direct quotes from letters and merely hinting at other literary works. James employs various techniques to achieve this.

Firstly, James modifies the "central intelligence" concept so it becomes the cohesive consciousness of the entire narrative. Before this novel, an "intelligence" was merely a viewpoint or character. In Strether, James crafts a perspective through which the entire story is filtered. All information in the novel is unveiled solely through this intelligence, a fact acknowledged multiple times within the text. Secondly, the third-person narration utilizes "scenes" and "pictures" to support Strether's perspective. A scene involves characters interacting and conversing, while pictures convey Strether’s thoughts without the pitfalls of soliloquies. For instance, Strether's initial private meeting with Madame de Vionnet starts with a scene involving Chad, transitions into a picture, and then moves into a scene with Madame de Vionnet herself. The picture communicates Strether’s impressions of Madame de Vionnet’s apartment in the third person. Their dialogue scene is interspersed with remarks like, “it gave her another pause; which, however, she happily enough shook off.” Through these methods, the third-person narrative is seamlessly integrated into the singular perspective of the main character, creating a cohesive unity that forms Strether’s "experience."

As Strether undergoes transformation, the narrator's conveyed information evolves as well. Following the day of the countryside excursion, the narrative paints a vivid picture of Strether, capturing the turmoil of his emotions. In the midst of numerous internal questions that the narrator implies Strether is contemplating, he is depicted as having "a deliberate hand on his blue missive, crumpling it up rather tenderly than harshly." The specifics of Madame de Vionnet's note are shared, though the note itself is not directly quoted.

Although James is often regarded as perhaps the greatest American novelist, his stories aren't necessarily packed with action. Similar to other Realists like William Dean Howells and Theodore Dreiser, James believed that a novelist's role was to portray characters with vivid detail and accuracy. While events should unfold around these characters, the author shouldn't force a complicated plot upon them. Instead, characters should have the freedom to evolve and navigate their world. This artistic vision is why many modern readers express frustration, claiming that nothing happens in Realist novels. In reality, James's works are filled with intense and dramatic moments, but understanding his technique is key to recognizing these events.

The first and last sentences of the novel hold great significance. It opens with: "Strether's first question, when he reached the hotel, was about his friend." After many pages and much frustration, it concludes with Strether's words: "Then there we are." This phrase signifies the resolution of a moral dilemma he has been discussing with Miss Gostrey throughout the book. This decision marks his acceptance of the consequences and his choice to forgo a potentially glorious life in Europe because his moral upbringing dictates it is the right path. These sentences emphasize the novel's focus on questioning and reasoning. Essentially, The Ambassadors is about one man's struggle to make a decision in a morally complex situation. Should his allegiance be with Chad or Chad's mother, Mrs. Newsome, who is also Strether's fiancée? The lengthy, dense passages of Strether's reasoning, decision-making, reconsidering, and changing his mind mirror his internal state with accuracy and realism. The narrative is intricate because Strether himself is complex and thorough in resolving his issues. At this point in his career, James's goal as an artist was to depict an individual's moral consciousness rather than a straightforward sequence of events—it's worth noting that James was not a successful playwright.

James illustrates Strether's moral consciousness by using vivid, painterly imagery to create scenes reflecting his character's emotions. A notable example of this blend of literary and visual art appears later in the novel when Strether essentially walks through an Impressionist painting. The language James employs to describe the French countryside, which Strether explores, closely resembles a Monet painting. This choice of language isn't just descriptive; it symbolizes Strether's inner vision as "he really continued in the picture—that being for himself his situation." Strether is so moved by the landscapes that he recalls the Impressionist paintings he encountered on his European tour. James uses this painterly language to allow readers to experience the scene through Strether's perspective.

To contemporary readers, James's dialogue may appear minimal and occasionally challenging to interpret. Nonetheless, this is a crucial method he uses to illustrate Strether's mental state. Characters frequently leave sentences incomplete and mention unsavory topics only indirectly, speaking in a complex code. Although this ambiguity can be exasperating, it lends James's dialogue a sense of realism. After all, who truly speaks in the polished, straightforward language often found in novels? Characters frequently misunderstand one another and continue for pages before they rectify the mistake and begin to unravel a particularly complex moral dilemma. As a result, characters become more vivid as their frustrations resonate with us.

Another significant way James allows readers to experience Strether's frustration is by confining their perspective to his. Nothing occurs without Strether's presence; we see only what he sees and hear only what he hears. While this fosters a closer connection with Strether, it simultaneously creates a distance from him. There is a strong sense of dramatic irony throughout The Ambassadors; although readers observe and listen only to what Strether perceives, they often discern the truth of the situation well before he does.

The Ambassadors is undeniably a complex work by an American author. Yet, when you delve into its rich psychological depth, historical insights, and artistic expression, James's second-to-last novel becomes quite rewarding for dedicated and casual readers alike. He skillfully portrays the restrictive societal norms imposed on privileged individuals, using the novel's form as a powerful vehicle for his social critique. James's concerns about the fast-paced changes of the early 20th century resonate with today's students, who frequently hear critiques about the Internet's excesses and the overwhelming demands of staying connected. Despite its modern feel at times, The Ambassadors offers a detailed glimpse into life at the dawn of the last century.

What stands out in James's novel is its fascinating characters set against a richly detailed backdrop. Known more for character development than plot twists, James excels at bringing characters to life and making their moral dilemmas both realistic and poignant. As we follow Strether's intense internal debates and logical conclusions, his ultimate moral choice seems credible, even if not entirely admirable.

1. Did you find The Ambassadors difficult to read? It's undoubtedly dense and challenging. Was the effort worthwhile?

2. What are your thoughts on Lambert Strether as a character? Do you feel sympathy or at least empathy for him? Did he commit any truly wrong actions?

3. Consider reading one of James's earlier novels, like The Bostonians or The Europeans. You might find these earlier works easier and quicker to read. Which do you enjoy more? Besides readability, how else do their styles differ?

4. At the time The Ambassadors is set, the world was still vast but gradually shrinking. Do you think globalization, the Internet, and the diminishing barriers between cultures have made the differences between European and American cultures less pronounced than James perceived them to be?

5. Watch the film adaptation of The Golden Bowl, noting that the novel it is based on similarly explores individual moral consciousness. Can such a depiction be effectively translated from literature to film? Does this adaptation succeed? Finally, do you think The Ambassadors could be successfully adapted into a movie?

Critics who find Henry James's writing dense and challenging often claim that the renowned American author avoided writing about the impoverished. While this critique isn't entirely justified, it does highlight James's profound fascination with society. By "society," I don't mean the general populace but rather the elite few at the pinnacle of social and economic hierarchy. In the early 21st century, it's hard to grasp the significance of Society as a cultural force; we truly have no direct counterpart. Most people, to some extent, follow the lives of the rich and famous. However, the public generally only pays attention to those celebrities who actively engage in pursuits like acting, writing, running corporations, or attempting globe-trotting adventures. During the Victorian era, James's time, the scenario was quite different. Very few actors, with Sarah Bernhardt being a notable exception, achieved celebrity status when James penned The Ambassadors. The individuals whose activities were chronicled in society columns of newspapers were typically wealthy yet relatively inactive. Their role was to be part of Society, serving as examples to the middle and lower classes. By today's standards, they were unproductive, even when compared to the contributions of modern celebrities.

Sociologist Thorstein Veblen referred to these individuals as members of the leisure class in his 1899 treatise, asserting that their primary role was in "conspicuous consumption" of goods and services. They played the part that celebrities do today—influencing societal norms in behavior, fashion, and style—yet seldom engaged in any significant professions. Tasked with being cultural icons, the privileged few in the upper class were bound by a strict social code that dictated their behavior, effectively imprisoning them within their own privilege.

Undoubtedly, many readers may not feel immediate empathy for the idle wealthy. However, James masterfully captures their struggles, using the language in his novels to reflect the constraints of social decorum. His friend and protégé, Edith Wharton, addressed this issue in The Age of Innocence (1920). While Wharton's critique of the societal norms that confine individuals is overt, James's critique requires a closer examination. Wharton's protagonist, Newland Archer, often contemplates escaping his circumstances, considering radical actions like eloping with his true love. In contrast, James's character in The Ambassadors only becomes aware of his predicament during a conversation with Chad, the son of his fiancée and the focus of his "mission" to Europe, in a Paris garden. Strether urges Chad to "live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life." This plea becomes poignant when one realizes it reflects Strether's awareness that he has not truly lived, having been bound by his career, his engagement, and the societal expectations of a gentleman. He describes life as a mold into which one's consciousness is poured; sometimes the mold is ornate, sometimes "embossed with ornamental excrescences, or else smooth and dreadfully plain." This metaphor of the decorated or simple mold symbolizes the various social classes, which, once someone is born into one, confine the individual consciousness and shape it to fit their norms and values. Strether ultimately concludes that "one [only] has the illusion of freedom."

James appears to be somewhat troubled by the rapid pace of life in the modern era. It's fascinating to read a book written over a hundred years ago and notice hints of the paranoia that permeates today's digital world. Much like our concerns about the Internet's information overload and the loss of handwritten letters, Strether finds himself unsettled in a world filled with telegrams and quick ocean voyages. Strether may not be the most decisive person of his time, but it seems James harbors some resentment toward the speed at which faster communication methods compel him to make decisions. Without the telegram, he could have taken his time crafting a letter when his mission reached critical points. Instead, he has to quickly gather his thoughts and send them off immediately.

James's unease about the pressure technology places on individuals is evident in his focus on the telegrams flying around Paris and across the Atlantic. He describes the colors of envelopes, noting that one color signifies a local message while another indicates a transatlantic one. Strether's rationale for traveling to Europe—to rest and recover from an unspecified illness—also highlights his concern about the increasing speed of life at the century's turn. The illness Strether aims to recover from is likely neurasthenia, a nervous condition thought to be widespread among middle and upper-class men in urban settings who engaged in mental rather than physical work.

In his influential book, "Degeneration" (1892), German cultural critic Max Nordau attributed this nervous disorder's prevalence to the overwhelming amount of information businesspeople had to process. The terminology used to discuss this societal issue is strikingly similar to the language we use today to describe how the Internet has inundated us with more information than we can handle.

1903: Radio technology is being explored for broadcasting news and music.

Today: The internet is evolving to transmit various media formats, including live audio and visual communication.

1903: The German ship Deutschland sets a record for transatlantic crossing in just under six days. Nellie Bly travels around the world from New York back to New York in seventy-two days.

Today: A Concorde jet completes a flight from Paris to New York in three-and-a-half hours. Richard Rutan and Jeanna Yeager circumnavigate the globe without refueling between December 14 and 23, 1986. A 747 had previously flown over both poles in fifty-four hours a few years earlier.

1903: Mass advertising and monopolies emerge as new challenges.

Today: Advertising is everywhere, and monopolies are illegal due to a commitment to market competition and consumer welfare.

1903: The French abandon their efforts to construct the Panama Canal because they can't control worker mortality rates. Unbeknownst to them, the decorative flower pots outside their homes were perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Once the role of mosquitoes in spreading disease was discovered, along with new medications and the U.S.-backed secession of Panama from Colombia, American companies were able to complete the canal.

Today: Panama now owns and operates the Panama Canal. Although after a century of use, the canal requires significant repairs, it is too small for many modern supertankers and aircraft carriers in U.S. shipping fleets.

1903: Advances in reducing mortality improve the prosperity of developing nations, which are beginning to eliminate childhood diseases like cholera, typhoid fever, smallpox, and rickets. However, infant mortality rates remain high.

Today: Disease-related mortality rates in the developed world have fallen to about 10 per 1,000. This is expected to improve further with the completion of the human genome project, which will enable new drug developments. Meanwhile, AIDS has devastated Africa, with the United Nations projecting 27 million deaths. This has led to economic regression, potentially setting back some regions by fifty to one hundred years in their development.

Since the Declaration of Independence was signed, American writers have been concerned about the contrast between their own culture and that of Europe. James delves into the divide between American and European values, continuing a literary tradition started by early American writers like Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Washington Irving intentionally aimed to craft a literature that was unique and separate from England's. He wrote during the early years of the United States, a period when Noah Webster was making slight modifications to word spellings like "endeavor" and "color" (by removing the silent 'u's) to differentiate American English from British English. His work The Sketch Book (1820), famous for stories like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," is a collection of historical sketches, short stories, and travel writings. The historical sketches and stories focus on American life, asserting that the young nation indeed has a rich and varied history. In his travel writings, Irving shares his experiences in England, describing British customs that already appeared foreign to his American audience. Unlike James, who often favors European life for its rejection of puritanical dogma, Irving celebrates American values for their straightforwardness and integrity.

Nathaniel Hawthorne also aimed to validate American literature. As part of what scholar F. O. Matthesien called "the American Renaissance," Hawthorne worked among contemporaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville. These authors, to some extent, explored the connection between the United States and its origins in Europe. However, Hawthorne tackled this topic directly in works such as The Marble Faun (1860). This novel, similar to The Ambassadors, centers on an American in Europe, but instead of a middle-aged man, Hawthorne's protagonist is an innocent young girl studying in Italy. While primarily a mythic story about purity, innocence, and the essence of sin, The Marble Faun is rich with its exploration of the conflict between American and European values. Like Irving, and unlike James, Hawthorne tends to portray American values in a more positive light.

James was continually pushing the boundaries of literary realism, striving to use language to authentically capture personal experiences. Although his early successful novel, Roderick Hudson (1876), tracks a single character's development, it wasn't until his "phantasmagoric" phase that his stories began to fully rely on one character's consciousness. Before The Ambassadors, his best use of this approach was in What Maisie Knew (1897), a deeply ironic story told from the perspective of a young girl thrust into adult deceit due to her parents' divorce. Similar to The Ambassadors, What Maisie Knew is not narrated in first-person but limits the reader's view to what Maisie perceives. Due to her naivety, readers grasp much more of the narrative than Maisie does, recognizing the deceit spun by her parents, their new spouses, and the lovers of those spouses. This narrative style allows James to craft a tour de force of dramatic irony, highlighting how innocence can shield the young from even the most unpleasant realities.

Many of James's novels explore the central theme of The Ambassadors: the contrasts between American and European characters. The work that most directly examines this theme is The Europeans (1878), an early short novel about two expatriates who return to their New England family after facing financial difficulties. Stylistically distinct from The Ambassadors, it is characterized by lively dialogue and is notably readable. The clash of values that arises when Felix and his sister Eugenia visit their cousins, the Wentworths, foreshadows James's later depiction of Strether's encounter with his European guide, Miss Gostrey.

Both thematically and stylistically related to The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl (1904) was the last novel James completed, leaving two manuscripts unfinished at his death in 1916. The Golden Bowl focuses on the internal lives of its characters. The first part, titled "The Prince" in subsequent editions, centers on Prince Amerigo just before marrying a wealthy American woman who has relocated to Europe. His marriage becomes complicated by an unexpected reunion with a former lover. In the novel's second half, the focus shifts to Amerigo's wife as she discovers his infidelity and grapples with how to respond, providing the novel's dramatic tension. While the sections about Amerigo occasionally stray from his perspective, those focusing on his wife are nearly as concentrated on a single character as in The Ambassadors.

The Ambassadors is accessible on audiocassette, narrated by Walter Zimmerman. This unabridged version is spread across thirteen ninety-minute tapes and was published by Books on Tape, Inc. in 2001.

While not widely accessible, The Ambassadors does have a film adaptation. In 1977, the BBC produced a television movie version. This film embodies the classic Masterpiece Theatre style, with meticulous attention to setting and costumes, though the performances can be somewhat exaggerated at times. Nonetheless, the film remains surprisingly subtle and stays true to James's nuanced irony.

Students might find this particular film adaptation challenging to locate, so they may prefer watching a more recent film adaptation of James's work. The 2001 film The Golden Bowl, featuring Uma Thurman and Kate Beckinsale, is closely connected in terms of techniques, themes, and societal issues. The Golden Bowl serves as an excellent companion for students studying The Ambassadors; thus, its film adaptation would nicely complement any reading of The Ambassadors.

Sources
Alden, H. M., “Memorandum on ‘Project of a Novel by Henry James,’” in The Notebooks of Henry James, edited by F. O. Matthiessen and Kenneth B. Murdock, Oxford University Press, 1947, p. 372.

Blackmur, R. P., “In the Country of the Blue,” in Critiques and Essays on Modern Fiction: 1920–1951, edited by John W. Aldridge, Ronald Press Company, 1952, pp. 202–18.

Fogel, Daniel M., Covert Relations: James Joyce Virginia Woolf and Henry James, University Press of Virginia, 1990.

Forster, E. M., Aspects of the Novel, Harvest Books, 1954, pp. 153, 164.

Hicks, Granville, The Great Tradition: An Interpretation of American Literature Since the Civil War, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1935, pp. 112, 121.

James, William, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, Harvard University Press, 1981, pp. 293–95.

Lodge, David, 20th Century Literary Criticism, Longman, 1981.

Lubbock, Percy, The Craft of Fiction, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1955, pp. 156–71.

Matthiessen, F. O., Henry James: The Major Phase, Oxford University Press, 1944, p. 22.

Mencken, H. L., “Henry James,” in A Mencken Chrestomathy, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1953, pp. 500–01.

Patterson, John, “The Language of ‘Adventure’ in Henry James,” in American Literature, Vol. XXXII, November 1960, pp. 291–301.

Pound, Ezra, “Henry James,” in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound edited by T. S. Eliot, New Directions, 1954, pp. 295–338.

Vidal, Gore, “Return to The Golden Bowl,” in New York Review of Books, Vol. XXX, Nos. 21–22, January 19, 1984, pp. 8–12.

Watt, Ian, “The First Paragraph of The Ambassadors: An Explication,” in Essays in Criticism, Vol. X, July 1960, p. 274.

Wells, H. G., “Of Art, of Literature, of Henry James,” in Henry James and H. G. Wells: A Record of Their Friendship,and Their Quarrel, edited by Leon Edel and Gordon N. Ray, University of Illinois Press, 1958, pp. 234–60.

Further Reading
Benjamin, Walter, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt, New York, Schocken Books, 1968, pp. 217–51. Benjamin delves into the cultural consequences of replicating rare artworks in large quantities. This widespread replication increases an artwork's audience but raises questions about the original's value. Benjamin ponders the implications of this evolution.

Burke, Edmund, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Oxford University Press, 1990. Burke consolidates seventy-five years of discourse on the sublime with this work. He encapsulates contemporary thoughts on how stimuli, particularly literary and rhetorical, influence humans.

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz, The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, Basic Books, 1983. Cowan received the Dexter Prize from the Society of the History of Technology for this influential analysis of technology's impact on domestic life. She contends that while male responsibilities shifted towards industrialization, women's domestic roles expanded, leading to the perception of the housewife as naturally constrained by the 1930s. She explores why certain innovations that could have liberated housewives were not embraced by society.

Hays, Samuel P., The Response to Industrialism 1885–1914, edited by Daniel J. Boorstin, part of the Chicago History of American Civilization series, published by the University of Chicago Press, 1996. Hays explores both the positive and negative reactions of people to industrialism in America. The book mainly focuses on the experiences of male workers and how industrialization impacted skilled labor. It also details the accumulation of wealth by the robber barons and the emergence of the labor movement.

Sussman, Henry, Psyche and Text: The Sublime and the Grandiose in Literature, Psychopathology, and Culture, published by the State University of New York Press, 1993. Sussman argues that literature serves as a medium for society to process its concepts of self, others, and relationships. In Psyche and Text, he examines literary characters who mirror societal conflicts and delves into their importance by connecting psychology and literature.