The Ambassadors [with Biographical Introduction]
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?He is as solitary in the history of the novel as Shakespeare in the history of poetry.?
?Graham Greene
?Graham Greene
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When Chadwick Newsome, a young American favoured with fortune and independence, becomes entangled in a liaison dangereux with a Parisian temptress, his overbearing mother deploys her future husband, the elderly, amiable Strether, as an ambassador to engineer his safe return. But seduced by the ambient charms of Paris and the bewitching comtesse de Vionnet, Strether soon deserts to Chadwick's side, initiating a sparkling tale of mistaken intentions, comic accident and false allegiances which culminates in the deployment of another, less fallible ambassador - the cold, glittering, ruthless Sarah Pocock.
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First-time readers should be aware that details of the plot are revealed in this introduction. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
First-time readers should be aware that details of the plot are revealed in this introduction. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have never read a Henry James work that I haven't had to restart more than a couple of times before reaching the lightbulb moment of understanding. I was even afraid it would never come in 'The Ambassadors'. James's prose is at its densest and most convoluted here, and demands large amounts of concentration, but once you are 'in', you'll be glad you made the effort. It is a beautiful, comic, ironic, subtley-drawn story of a man's personal crisis in the afternoon of his life, set against the background of one of the most artistic, romantic and complex cities in the world.
Lambert Strether is 'our friend' - an amiable, naive, middle-aged American charged with the retrieval of his 'friend's' - the formidable Mrs Newsome's - son, Chad, from his suspected immoral lifestyle in Paris. Strether's personal, social and economic future all hang on his successfully prying Chad away and bringing him safely back to the family nest, where the family business and a strategic marriage await him. However, all does not go according to plan. Seduced by the charms of Paris and its delightful inhabitants, Strether experiences something of a second youth, throwing himself giddily into the social life of a city that is worlds apart from his conservative, uptight, native home of Woollett. So dazzled is Strether that he allows himself to be pleasantly manipulated and exploited by those around him, whose personal interests are in direct opposition to his own. Poor Strether is always several paces behind, and doesn't seem to know what's good for him, but this makes him all the more loveable.
James' linguistic style is at its most extravagant here - every utterance, glance, movement, or silence, is dissected, analysed, and contrasted ad nauseam. The characters are largely self-engrossed, indolent creatures, who spend their time speaking in allusions and metaphor while they praise people for being 'wonderful', 'good' and 'free', and criticize those who don't seem to appreciate the virtues of their decadent lifestyles. James has a fine old time poking fun at all parties involved, including, I suspect, himself. He paints Parisian society as enticing and splendid, yet ultimately deceptive and disillusioning. It brings about Strether's ruin, but we doubt he'd have chosen it any other way.
Henry James is not to everyone's taste, and I suspect that The Ambassadors is the most challenging of his novels. Essentially, it is largely some waffle about rather pretentious, unsympathetic people who do nothing in particular, expressed in tortuous (and sometimes torturous) prose. But there is something about that which is brilliant in itself.
Lambert Strether is 'our friend' - an amiable, naive, middle-aged American charged with the retrieval of his 'friend's' - the formidable Mrs Newsome's - son, Chad, from his suspected immoral lifestyle in Paris. Strether's personal, social and economic future all hang on his successfully prying Chad away and bringing him safely back to the family nest, where the family business and a strategic marriage await him. However, all does not go according to plan. Seduced by the charms of Paris and its delightful inhabitants, Strether experiences something of a second youth, throwing himself giddily into the social life of a city that is worlds apart from his conservative, uptight, native home of Woollett. So dazzled is Strether that he allows himself to be pleasantly manipulated and exploited by those around him, whose personal interests are in direct opposition to his own. Poor Strether is always several paces behind, and doesn't seem to know what's good for him, but this makes him all the more loveable.
James' linguistic style is at its most extravagant here - every utterance, glance, movement, or silence, is dissected, analysed, and contrasted ad nauseam. The characters are largely self-engrossed, indolent creatures, who spend their time speaking in allusions and metaphor while they praise people for being 'wonderful', 'good' and 'free', and criticize those who don't seem to appreciate the virtues of their decadent lifestyles. James has a fine old time poking fun at all parties involved, including, I suspect, himself. He paints Parisian society as enticing and splendid, yet ultimately deceptive and disillusioning. It brings about Strether's ruin, but we doubt he'd have chosen it any other way.
Henry James is not to everyone's taste, and I suspect that The Ambassadors is the most challenging of his novels. Essentially, it is largely some waffle about rather pretentious, unsympathetic people who do nothing in particular, expressed in tortuous (and sometimes torturous) prose. But there is something about that which is brilliant in itself.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Frankly, this book drove me up the wall. I came to it on the joyous wave of 'Portrait of a Lady' and the straightforward pleasures of 'Washington Square' and ran smiling into the impenetrable wall of James' prose. Everything you have heard about the dense thickets of grammar are true, and I confess I lacked the necessary machete of patience. All characters live in a state of constant allusion and circumlocution, and are forever describing each other: "Of course, she's wonderful...", "Of course, he is the most charming...", "Of course, she is magnificent...'" without the reader ever quite being allowed to actually see any wonder or charm or magnificence being employed by any of the people so described.
If this is to be your first Henry James experience, it shouldn't be. 'Portrait of a Lady', on the other hand, quivers with delightfulness.
If this is to be your first Henry James experience, it shouldn't be. 'Portrait of a Lady', on the other hand, quivers with delightfulness.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Buttoned-up, late-middle-aged Strether, from Boston, is sent to Paris to 'rescue' a friend's wayward son, Chad, from his allegedly dissolute lifestyle. However on the way he begins a sort of romance of his own, finds Paris liberating and discovers Chad and his girlfriend to be charming and cultured. Torn in his loyalties, he cannot act decisively, even when more Bostonians are sent out after him. This great comedy of manners was somewhat weakened for me by the sheer amount of painfully-unsure interiority, with Strether's continual revisions and worries expressed in vast, multiple-claused, self-correcting sentences. I'd quote one except it'd take up more space than this whole review. There is also less 'action' than we're used to nowadays, and by page 400 or so I was flagging. All the characters are so sensitive and circumspect that they keep referring to each other as 'our friend' and 'the person we know' which makes it even harder to follow. The most dramatic scenes happen off-stage, and despite their artiness, the characters never talk about anything except each other. I'm glad to have read it, and sometimes, when I was feeling at peak mental fitness, I even enjoyed it in an exhilarating, mountaineering way, but I think I've earned a Jackie Collins now... :-)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mind ravaging potboiler
I read Washington Square and found that to be just about the most boring book I'd ever opened. I heard that the prose used in this book was impenetrable. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Hardcore Noir
Happy Initiation
My first Henry James as an adult. I hesitated to read an author whom I had found impenetrable as a teenager. How wrong I was and how glad I am that I persevered. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Edward H Morgan
A bridge too far
I don't consider myself a wimp when it comes to reading books. I have read War and Peace twice (and enjoyed it). I have even read The Silmarilion. But this one defeated me. Read more
Published on 8 April 2010 by Ruth O'D
Excellent, a classic tale - Henry James through and through.
I would recomend any of the books by Henry James, he is a excellent story teller, he has the abilty to draw you into the story and capture your sole attention. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2000 by tracey@sfb.co.uk
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