Reviews

The Ambassadors by Henry James

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kweekwegg's review against another edition

5.0

Phhooooooofff. So the book is long enough, and takes enough of an effort to get through, that no matter how much I love the thing as a whole, I was liable to fall into moments of not being fully 'into' it. Which I suppose is only to say that, on a handful of occasions, I lost my ability to focus on what it was really about (or, rather, what I project it to be 'about'....). To be brief, I love the book as a whole because of James's devotion to making the reader full the effects of time -- for it takes a long time to read and focus on, and this contributes to the meaning and adds value to the story in general. To be honest I was happy when I finally finished it, but I do think that the reward of finishing a book is part of the whole experience.

pbandgee's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

caterpillarnotebooks's review against another edition

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3.0

idk man... idk

axl_oswaldo's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

" 'Mr. Lewis Lambert Strether’ ”—she sounded it almost as freely as for any stranger. She repeated however that she liked it—“particularly the Lewis Lambert. It’s the name of a novel of Balzac’s.”
“Oh I know that!” said Strether.
“But the novel’s an awfully bad one.”
“I know that too,” Strether smiled.

---

Some spoilers below: For some reason I felt the need to talk about the ending of the book, so I'm literally telling you how this novel ends in order for me to express my thoughts afterwards. Feel free to read that part of my review—the penultimate paragraph—regardless, and thank you for understanding.

I'm quite sure we don't find books that change our life every single day—probably that would be insane—but when it happens, you already know that that book will be with you forever, that you won't be the same person you were before reading it. It is a big change, it is a whole thing for you to think of, as if you were about to start like a new chapter in your life. Well, I guess The Ambassadors is that book for me.

I remember when I started my Jamesian journey back in 2020, and now here we are, having finished the final 'trilogy' by one of my all-time favorite writers: The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, and of course, The Ambassadors. Trilogy perhaps is not the right way to call them, since every book has its own independent storyline and therefore that story has nothing to do with the other two, but when it comes to James and his last works, I think it is rather useful to identify those that are very similar in terms of the prose and the topics, just like these three books are in particular, and to remember that a slow reading should be the best way for you to really enjoy them.
The Ambassadors is not an easy read, even I would say it was the most confusing, ambiguous, complex and not-to-the-point novel by James I have read so far—along with The Golden Bowl—yet it was so profound and beautifully written that I almost felt as if the author were having a real conversation with me while I read it. Since I'm used to reading his novels and his style of writing, it was not as challenging as some of my previous reading experiences such as The Golden Bowl or The Beast in the Jungle, however, I would never recommend this novel to anyone, not even to someone who enjoyed reading his previous works.

This novel introduces one of the most interesting Jamesian characters I have found thus far: Lambert Strether, a widower who is arriving in Europe from the States, has the purpose to rescue his son in-law Chad who is living a new, probably crazy life in Paris, and bring him back home, since Mrs. Newsome, Strether’s future wife, has asked him to do so. That's the storyline, by the way, a few lines and I have said what this book is entirely about. Perhaps, at the end of the day, this novel is not impressive because of the plot, but because of the way it is written; I know, ambiguity is always a main characteristic of any James' books, and The Ambassadors is not an exception. The more you read the book, the more you want to put it aside, which is a normal scenario (it might happen to everyone, in my view), but, on the other hand, if you are really into it, if the book is telling you something quite meaningful, remarkable, let's say, showing you a new perspective of life—just as my experience was—in the end you'll be able to love it, that's for sure.

Strether's life before meeting Chad in Paris used to be simple, perhaps a little monotonous, and at one moment way back when he was younger, really sad and heartbreaking, but after that meeting, he started to feel young again, somehow he managed to be free, so to speak. 'Free? Free from what?' You might ask; well, basically now he is free from himself, free from anything which hindered his own life to success. As we know, it is a whole process to realize where you are in life at one precise moment, if you are heading in the right direction or perhaps losing your way—which is, in my experience, a good thing sometimes—and what you want to do about it. Therefore, Strether's story taught me two very important things: firstly, it's never too late to start living and enjoying your own life, maybe a new life, and secondly, that I don't want to wait one more minute to keep living mine. I am 26—almost 27 in a few days, holy cow!—and Strether is twice my age, but I know nevertheless I have lived many things that have shaped the person who I am right now, and I also know people are always learning new stuff, that people are always living new experiences that make them question 'who am I?,' 'who do I want to become?,' 'where will I be, let's say, in 10, 20, 30 years?,' and so on and so forth, but here is the thing, if I dreaded something while reading this book was the fact that I don't want to turn Strether's age and to say 'I don't even know who I am'. Better late than never, so people say, but what if you start working on it now, not tomorrow, but today?
Perhaps the way Strether's story somehow changed me as a person, at this stage of my life, is unexpected and even inexplicable to me, yet quite remarkable, and eventually I prefer to figure it out on my own – I do remember there were many thoughts in my head while I was reading the novel, which, as I said, is not something that happened to me before, or at least not in the same way, not at the same level either. Never—perhaps I'm too dramatic saying this in this way—never before had a book made me feel what The Ambassadors made me feel when I read it, and yet I can't even explain how such a thing had an impact on me, this connection, this feeling... sorry but I can't (and if I could, I would rather keep it a secret than share it with everyone).

The ending of the novel was really vague and something that only Henry James could have written: Strether coming back home and not staying in Paris – why is he coming back?! What does it mean? When I read that part I got confused and I started overthinking the whole scene, perhaps trying to make out what the author wanted to say here. After a few days, I went back, I read the last two chapters again, and perhaps this time I got a conclusion (needless to say it is my conclusion but probably not the most accurate): Strether is coming back Massachusetts, not because he didn't learn anything during his visit to Chad in Paris, but because he wanted to live his new life in the place where he grew up, the place where everything began, so to speak, although this time as a new man and with a different attitude; that person is not the same Strether who arrived in London in the first chapter, but a completely different Strether, a much better version of himself, in my opinion (if this is not a coming-of-age novel, then I don't know what is).

Finally, I'd like to finish my 'review' by saying The Ambassadors is a novel which you have to read not only once in your life, but as many times as possible—as long as you enjoyed your first reading experience—and that's what I'm planning to do in the distant future – I can almost tell that picking it up again will have to be hugely rewarding. Here, for instance, I'm sharing only one of my favorite quotes with you, and probably the most important lines for me when reading the novel a couple of weeks ago:
“Of course I’m youth—youth for the trip to Europe. I began to be young, or at least to get the benefit of it, the moment I met you at Chester, and that’s what has been taking place ever since. I never had the benefit at the proper time—which comes to saying that I never had the thing itself. I’m having the benefit at this moment; I had it the other day when I said to Chad ‘Wait’; I shall have it still again when Sarah Pocock arrives. It’s a benefit that would make a poor show for many people; and I don’t know who else but you and I, frankly, could begin to see in it what I feel. I don’t get drunk; I don’t pursue the ladies; I don’t spend money; I don’t even write sonnets. But nevertheless I’m making up late for what I didn’t have early. I cultivate my little benefit in my own little way. It amuses me more than anything that has happened to me in all my life. They may say what they like—it’s my surrender, it’s my tribute, to youth. One puts that in where one can—it has to come in somewhere, if only out of the lives, the conditions, the feelings of other persons. Chad gives me the sense of it, for all his grey hairs, which merely make it solid in him and safe and serene; and she does the same, for all her being older than he, for all her marriageable daughter, her separated husband, her agitated history. Though they’re young enough, my pair, I don’t say they’re, in the freshest way, their own absolutely prime adolescence; for that has nothing to do with it. The point is that they’re mine. Yes, they’re my youth; since somehow at the right time nothing else ever was. What I meant just now therefore is that it would all go—go before doing its work—if they were to fail me.”