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A review by wmhenrymorris
The Ambassadors by Henry James
Not for the inexperienced reader of Henry James. In fact, only attempt if you've already made it through Portrait of Lady, The Bostonians, and even The Golden Bowl.
This is a finely tuned novel. It also requires a certain acceptance of premises (whole scenes take place inside the thought processes of the main character Strether rather than providing us with the actual conversation). But there's no better exploration of American idealism meeting European cosmopolitanism and both crashing against the hardness of American propriety and prosperity.
This is a finely tuned novel. It also requires a certain acceptance of premises (whole scenes take place inside the thought processes of the main character Strether rather than providing us with the actual conversation). But there's no better exploration of American idealism meeting European cosmopolitanism and both crashing against the hardness of American propriety and prosperity.