The ambassadors

The ambassadors (Los embajadores) es una novela de Henry James de 1903, originalmente publicada en el North American Review. Esta comedia, considerada una obra maestra del período final de James, sigue al protagonista Lewis Lambert Strether a Europa en busca de Chad Newsome, el hijo de su prometida. Debe llevarlo de vuelta al negocio familiar. La narrativa, en tercera persona, es contada desde el punto de vista de Strether.

Más abajo incluimos unos párrafos en inglés y algunos trazos de la vida del autor.

En vocabulario encontramos bespeaking, bungle y tryst

 

Strether's first question, when he reached the hotel, was about his friend; yet on his learning that Waymarsh was apparently not to arrive till evening he was not wholly disconcerted. A telegram from him bespeaking a room "only if not noisy," reply paid, was produced for the enquirer at the office, so that the understanding they should meet at Chester rather than at Liverpool remained to that extent sound. The same secret principle, however, that had prompted Strether not absolutely to desire Waymarsh's presence at the dock, that had led him thus to postpone for a few hours his enjoyment of it, now operated to make him feel he could still wait without disappointment. They would dine together at the worst, and, with all respect to dear old Waymarsh—if not even, for that matter, to himself—there was little fear that in the sequel they shouldn't see enough of each other. The principle I have just mentioned as operating had been, with the most newly disembarked of the two men, wholly instinctive—the fruit of a sharp sense that, delightful as it would be to find himself looking, after so much separation, into his comrade's face, his business would be a trifle bungled should he simply arrange for this countenance to present itself to the nearing steamer as the first "note," of Europe. Mixed with everything was the apprehension, already, on Strether's part, that it would, at best, throughout, prove the note of Europe in quite a sufficient degree.

That note had been meanwhile—since the previous afternoon, thanks to this happier device—such a consciousness of personal freedom as he hadn't known for years; such a deep taste of change and of having above all for the moment nobody and nothing to consider, as promised already, if headlong hope were not too foolish, to colour his adventure with cool success. There were people on the ship with whom he had easily consorted—so far as ease could up to now be imputed to him—and who for the most part plunged straight into the current that set from the landing-stage to London; there were others who had invited him to a tryst at the inn and had even invoked his aid for a "look round" at the beauties of Liverpool; but he had stolen away from every one alike, had kept no appointment and renewed no acquaintance, had been indifferently aware of the number of persons who esteemed themselves fortunate in being, unlike himself, "met," and had even independently, unsociably, alone, without encounter or relapse and by mere quiet evasion, given his afternoon and evening to the immediate and the sensible… (Paragraphs from The Ambassadors, by Henry James)

Henry James

Vocabulario

Bespeaking: bespeak: to hire, book or reserve.

Bungle: badly done.

The return to lethal injections in the state where the method was created follows a series of bungled and gruesome executions in 2014.

Tryst: appointment, assignation, date, engagement, rendezvous.

Both lovers had to hurry to keep their noontime tryst in the park.

Para saber

Henry James (1843 - 1916) adquirió la ciudadanía británica al final de sus días. Se lo considera una figura clave del realismo. Es más conocido por un número de novelas en las que los americanos encuentran a Europa y a los europeos. Su método de escribir, desde el punto de vista de un personaje, le permitía explorar temas relacionados a la consciencia y la percepción.

Es más conocido por sus novelas sobre la interacción social y matrimonial entre estadounidenses emigrados, ingleses y europeos continentales. Ejemplos de tales novelas incluyen The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, y The Wings of the Dove.

Su novela The Turn of the Screw se ha ganado la reputación de ser la historia de fantasmas más analizada y ambigua en inglés, y sigue siendo su obra más adaptada en otros medios.

James fue nominado al Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1911, 1912 y 1916.

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