Classic example of endlessly ambitious work (7)
I believe the answer is:
epitome
'classic example' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'endlessly ambitious work' is the wordplay.
'endlessly ambitious' becomes 'epi' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'work' becomes 'tome' (tome is a kind of work).
'epi'+'tome'='EPITOME'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for epitome that I've seen before include "Personification" , "Ideal example" , "Abstract" , "Embodiment or perfect example" , "Essence or embodiment" .)