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Sto caricando le informazioni... The Ambassadors [Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed.]di Henry James, S. P. Rosenbaum (A cura di)
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. James is by far one of the most overrated writers in the English language. Aside from the tiresome obfuscation and baroque stylization in the prose, the earnestness with which these characters rehearse the banal and bourgeois premise of the novel strains credulity. I've heard people discuss terminal illness with more irony and frivolity than these overwrought sentimentalists discuss ad nauseam the deeply serious matter of Chad and Strether being (egad) fond of Paris. ( ) My reaction to this novel was one mostly of frustration. Not for the “difficulty” of James’ style, I’m not afraid of difficulty, but for what small matter it went in service to here. I finally realized that, unlike all the other novels, stylistically difficult or not (including other works by James) that I’ve found myself truly drawn to, called by, immersed in, this novel seemed to me to have no cosmological dimension, and in fact, not even any still-resonant (to me) social dimension– and what else is the defining subject of this ample form? I felt The Ambassadors was entirely constructed to show off its protagonist, who failed to fascinate me anything like as much as he obviously did James. So the experience of reading this dilatory work depended utterly on whether or not you found Strether’s personal dilemma sympathetic or consequential. I did not. Even James’ technique, brilliant and revolutionary as it was, of centering a narrative intimately close to but not entirely inside a particular consciousness was, it seemed to me, antithetical to the invocation of any larger dimensions of reality, at least in this case. And (reading James’ Preface, included in this edition, very helpful) his emphasis on the supremacy of the artist’s control in every respect left no room for negative capability, which is an experience of the cosmological dimension as the source of inspiration. So how could his work not feel airless to me in some way, when he rules out the most fertile plain of discovery? Whenever you dismiss something acclaimed a masterwork and a favorite of the author himself, by a writer as skilled as James, you are probably risking your own credibility as a good reader. But a good reader is allowed personal taste. We are not allowed to call it more than that, however. Or at least I won’t. (I was however, bolstered by reading the essays in this great edition - and by a couple of sharp quotes about James that I think are part of the experience of reading him. "This book was not quite worth the extraordinary trouble of reading it," said Arnold Bennett. "He often chewed more than he bit off," said one of his friends. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Appartiene alle Collane EditorialiContieneThe Ambassadors, vol. 1 di Henry James (indirettamente) The Ambassadors, vol. 2 di Henry James (indirettamente)
The importance of these variants and the conditions under which the novel was written and revised--conditions leading to the continuing controversy over the order of the chapters--are discussed in the editor's rewritten and updated essay on editions and revisions of The Ambassadors. As often as possible, the annotations to the text have been made by referring 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 been added to this Second Edition, and the original frontispieces to the New York Edition of the novel have been reproduced in their proper sequence for the first time. "The Author on the Novel" contains James's notebook entries on the inspiration for The Ambassadors as well as the long, remarkable preliminary statement that the author drew up before writing his novel. The selection of James's letters on The Ambassadors has also been expanded for the Second Edition. "Criticism" is comprised of fourteen essays that represent more than seventy years of analysis of The Ambassadors, by H. M. Alden, Percy Lubbock, E. M. Forster, F. O. Matthiessen, F. R. Leavis, Joseph Warren Beach, Joan Bennett, Leon Edel, Ian Watt, Sallie Sears, Nicola Bradbury, Maud Ellmann, Millicent Bell, and Philip Fisher. A Chronology and an expanded Selected Bibliography are also included. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.4Literature English (North America) American fiction Later 19th Century 1861-1900Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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