Rating: 
Summary: dense yet worthwhile
Review: Another tough Henry James read still contains his best leading character> In fact, all the characters here are well drawn, even ones you never meet, like Mrs. Newsome, who is strictly an indirect background force. James always wrote very piercing stories of moral and romantic conflict and this one, vague and hard as the langauge can be, is no exception. Despite the narrative's thickness, you can't helped but be awed by how a master can re-arrange the English tongue to sound this beautiful. You will feel every inch of being in Paris here, and, as well, the frustration and confusion of every lost soul in the story. Even the scared conformist characters are vividly drawn. Another amazing effort by a writer who isn't always easy to dissect. Requires more than a brief sit thru. Stick with it, you will feel like you've lived the book yourself.
Rating:
Summary: somewhat consistant and occasionally engaging:
Review: I don't really care for Henry James. I have read several of his books, from the atrocious Portrait of a Lady and the even worse Washington Square to the bland muddle of The Awkward Age and The Spoils of Poynton. The Turn of the Screw was all right, if only because the subject matter seemingly inadvertantly held my interest. The Wings of the Dove I actually remember liking, but I can't say that I remember much else about it. So it is with The Ambassadors, another terrifically engaging book that I will forget all of the characters names tomorrow.
It really is a pretty good book, written, frankly, with a brilliance I have yet to encounter in this over-rated author's ouevre. It is beautifully written: psychologically acute and even at times interesting in spite of itself. The characters are all--and that includes every one of them, from the fleeting passersby to the central focus--astutely articulated creations. The trouble is that they all seem to be less human than cogs in the machine James called 'narrative'.
This can get annoying the deeper one gets into it: everything and everyone is a set piece, a prop thrown out there to move the story along instead of giving the reader the idea that these are real people having things happen to them.
This is not--not by a long stretch--the book an initiate should enter James with. That being said, however, this is (and I imagine will remain) my favorite of all his books. It is really quite moving when the point (frequently hammered home to us) is made aware to the primary characters. I am tempted to proclaim that I give this book four and a half stars because there was about a 200 page stretch in the middle when I was throughly and completely engaged in the story. Be that as it may, I round it down to four because I really, still, don't like Henry James . . .
Rating: 
Summary: I loved reading this book!
Review: I had some difficulty at first, getting the rhythm of his writing, but once I got it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a novel about an American from Woollett, Massachusetts, named Lambert Strether, who sets out for Europe for the purpose of fetching his fiancée's, Mrs. Newsome's, son Chadwick Newsome, from the supposed clutches of an inappropriate liaison with a French woman, Madame Marie de Vionnet, and her daughter, Mademoiselle Jeanne de Vionnet. Other characters include Mr. Strether's longtime friend, Mr. Waymarsh, a new acquaintance, Maria Gostrey, Mrs. Newsome's daughter, Mrs. Sarah Pocock, her husband James Pocock, and Chad's intended bride-to-be, Miss Mamie Pocock. The Ambassadors of the title of the novel seem to be the group of Sarah, Jim and Mamie, who come to Europe later with the purpose of fetching Mr. Strether back for Mrs. Newsome. What occurs is a trial of manners and propriety with Mr. Strether encouraging Chad to stay on in Paris, France, with the advice of living life to the fullest rather than going back to America to a life of boredom and a stale marriage. I enjoyed reading the book itself, and I would greatly recommend this to others!
Rating: 
Summary: BAH, HUMBUG
Review: I KNOW CRAP WHEN I SEE IT OR IN THIS CASE READ IT! THE BOOK I READ HAD JAMES BOOK PROPOSAL INCLUDED, TOO BAD HE DIDN'T LEAVE IT LIKE THAT-IT WOULD HAVE SAVED PAGES OF DRIVEL. THE BOOK MAY HAVE HAD SOME MERIT WHEN IT WAS READ ALOUD FROM THE ORIGINAL SERIALS, BUT THEY ARE LOST IN THE LAST 100 YEARS.OH, DID YOU KNOW THAT IT APPEARED IN AMERICAN MAGAZINE IN TWELVE PARTS.I READ PORTRAIT FORTY YEARS AGO FOR AN SLU ENGLISH CLASS AND PICKED THE HARDEST BOOK ON THE LIST. I PANNED IT AND GOT IT SOCKED TO ME AS IT WAS THE PROF'S FAVORITE BOOK. HE WASN'T MUCH OF A TEACHER EITHER. I JUST READ WASHINGTON SQUARE, WHICH ISN'T BAD FOR A SHORT ROMANCE NOVEL. I SUSPECT JAMES WAS PAID BY THE WORD AND HE DID NOT HESITATE TO PILE IT UP.DAVID N BLODGETT daveb@gloryroad.net
Rating: 
Summary: And you thought Faulkner was difficult
Review: I read this novel twice trying to appreciate its artistry. About half way through I started reading it aloud and I have to admit that I admire James mastery of the English language. However the plot was dull and plodding and I neither liked nor admired any of the charcters.The theme seemed to be that Americans were stuffy and dull while Europeans were cultured and cosmopilitan. From what I have read of James, he preffered Europe to his native America. I am assuming i will find the same theme in other James works.
Rating:
Summary: My jury is out on this complex opus
Review: Reading "The Ambassadors," I was awed by the subtletly of emotion and social gesture James was able to describe. Clearly here was a crafted that had been years in the honing, and I appreciate the book's liberation from the plot-heavy mechanics of earlier books like "The Portrait of a Lady" and "The American." Everything is only subtly insinuated; whole lives can hinge upon half-meant gestures or long-buried social prejudices. In this way, the book has some of the wistful tone of "The Age of Innocence," but more depth if less elegant prose. The prose is the thing -- James was dictating by this time (how on Earth does one dictate a novel?), and it shows. His chewy ruminations and meandering, endlessly parenthetical sentences are hard to digest. I think James went too far in his late style, and "The Ambassadors" might have benefited from a sterner editor. Still, this is an important book, absolutely worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Tough As It Gets, But Worth the Monumental Effort
Review: THE AMBASSADORS demands more effort and concentration from the reader than probably any other novel written by an American. But the payoff is worth the effort, however we may begrudge James' frustratingly and intentionally thick prose. James does indeed describe intense human situations in great depth and detail: duty, honor, nostalgia; the contrast between the starchy-collared stiffness of Brahmin Boston (read: America) contrasted with the joie de vivre of Paris (read: Europe); how difficult certain of life's choices can be. These are just a few themes that make this book worthwhile. James' America is young and trying to assert itself (and so takes itself too seriously); his Europe is old and satisfied (and perhaps doesn't take itself seriously enough). Lambert Strether, a fiftysomething turn-of-the-20th-century bourgeois Bostonian gentleman on an aristocratic lady's errand--she will not marry him until he convinces her son Chad to return to Massachusetts. We see his struggle with his uncomfortable position when he realizes Chad is no longer a spoiled young prep-schooler, but a young gentleman of increasing refinement and self-awareness. And if Strether is anything, by the way, he is one of the most supremely self-aware characters in literary history. Once that Paris air starts to play its magic with Strether himself, we are off to the races. Keeping in mind, of course, that with James' prose we are racing with tortoises. James invites us to ponder how many chances a person truly gets in this life to reinvent his or her self? And if we get the chance, do we always take it? How much should we weigh the consequences before we decide? How much are we willing to accept them after we have chosen? For similar themes with clearer, faster-paced, and wittier prose, try Edith Wharton's marvelous homage to James, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.
Rating:
Summary: Narration via nuanced indirection
Review: The knot of this novel is a moral dilemma: should we follow the right path fate seems to have decided for us, or should we do what we really want to do? Both alternatives have consequences, for good and bad. There are moments in life when we have to make difficult decisions which will change our life in a definitive way. This is what happens to the central characters in this novel. The plot is simple: Chad Newsome, a wealthy young man from Massachussetts, has been having the good life for too long now in Paris. His mother and sister (the father has died) have the terrible suspicion that he is living in "sin" with a wicked Parisian. So Mrs. Newsome sends his 50-something fiancée Strether to look for him and bring him home. Only if he succeeds will Mrs. Newsome consent to marry him. So old Strether goes to Paris, finds the guy, tells him right away his intentions, and then nothing happens for months. Except, that is, for betrayals, switching alliances, a lot of gossip, parties, misunderstandings, and so on. Strether, a self-aware man, realizes little by little that he doesn't want to go back to New England for all the money in the world, and Mrs. Newsome has some, and also that Chad is no longer a spoiled kid , and that neither he wants to go back very much. The tension of the novel is built up little by little, in twisted, malicious and nuanced conversations that occur between all the characters. In the end, Strether resolves his moral dilemma somehow. Much is said about James' prose going way over the top here in his overworked style. It's true, but nonetheless it is perfectly suited to the place, environment, plot and characters of his novel. It is certainly not an easy reading, but I did like it. James is really a master creator of athmospheres, of conversations and of subtleties. This is a novel to be read slowly, little by little, as the plot evolves gradually and without sudden jumps. If you like to appreciate the full potentialities of the English language at its most complex beauty, as a plus to a hard moral dilemma and splendid scenarios, try this novel, with patience.
Rating:
Summary: Lost In A Madness of Words
Review: The Portrait of A Lady by Henry James is as perfect as a novel can be, and long after reading it, I remain mesmerized by its perfection, which has me wanting to flay The Ambassadors for having the impertinence of being created by the same man. The writing in The Ambassadors---I read every word, slowly---reminds me of the story of the mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., in the movie A Beautiful Mind, in which Mr. Nash is consumed by a madness of numbers. The numbers are all there, in his head, and he adores them, but is too absorbed by them to be able to get them out properly for another person's account. In the movie The Pillow Book, there is a scene where words are superimposed over the body of a woman to suggest that she is washing herself with them, as they are the objects of her devotion, the means to record life, the means of hanging on to moments. In The Ambassadors, Henry James strikes me as being overcome by an infatuation with words to no great account---words composed for love of them without giving lyrical effect, clarity, or shape to a story or characters. Artistry is making something perfect, communicating a personal vision, with all one's tricks, so that others get it clearly, perfectly---not being so personal that the creation hardly reaches anyone but the creator, and, in the case of The Ambassadors's main character, Strether, not being so personal that his fascinations are chiefly fascinating to him. Overly many words in The Ambassadors give reverence and eternity to a moment, a thought, or the delicate ascertainment of motive, but the reverence is not remembered as much as the roughness in going through so many words, obscurely put, to reach understandings that are not great enough or numerous enough to make the effort fulfilling. The novel should have been shortened by at least one-third. Allusions in the novel's narration and dialogue are chronic, creating a deliberate vagueness without building a sufficient quantity of impressions to keep one from finally being exasperated that all one has met is a pile of words in which only James is bathing luxuriantly. Using too many words to tell too little has James repeating, too often, what long ago was implied or expressed. At story's end, little more is known than what one suspected at the beginning. Obviousness in a plot is not fatal, as demonstrated by William Shakespeare, who sets out characters and purposes straight-off in most of his plays and then proceeds through the details with magnificence, large points being told clearly with the fewest words in the prettiest arrangement. In getting to the end of his story, James does not add much of interest, but confounds by having one unsure, too often, what language intended, whether in describing a thing or a person or a motive. Throughout, something that is imputed to one person seems capable of being imputed to any of the characters, which might be alright if it led to discovery eventually. The work in determining something as simple as who or what was meant by the words "he," "she," "this," or "it" was not worthy of the gain. Subtly leading a reader to an impression appeals to me, but finally there has to be impression. Gore Vidal is a master of subtlety and clarity. Everything he tells me subtly seems to be absorbed by me clearly. In The Ambassadors, James has me arguing through language that did not tell me enough to provide delight from comprehension, in contrast to his writing in The Portrait of A Lady, where subtly there is a building of Isabel Archer's personality so that one sees her from above, from below, from the sides, and straight through without quite knowing how one got to know her in the round except through magic. Long, controlled, and clear sentences are to be adored, and so is repetition, which is the key to learning. James's sentences in The Ambassadors are long, controlled, and too often unclear, and rather than gathering to clarity, they annoy as nonsense for requiring so much work from the reader for so little. In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin's masterpiece of clarity, it is clear that Darwin cannot write except by way of long sentences, but his sentences on matters obscure and subtle are commanding, so clear that they make light work out of something difficult in other hands. And throughout, Darwin is repetitive in a delightful way, reinforcing and accumulating knowledge so that you are drawn into his view of the world if only because you want to be drawn by someone who has expressed his view so clearly and perfectly, with dedication. And dedication is what my most favourable impression of The Ambassadors is---the dedication of the main character, Strether, to figuring out motives and making what he regards as the right choices. In this way, Strether reminded me of the determination of Michel de Montaigne and Charles Darwin to working hard to figure out the motives of life, determination that inspires awe, except that Montaigne and Darwin saw themselves through their words clearly and Strether, while making decisions and figuring things out, did so only with words that leave the reader with more sensations of the unclear than the things figured out.
Rating: 
Summary: At Least It's Better Than "The Wings of the Dove"
Review: There, is that praise faint enough for you? Yes, I found "The Ambassadors" a great deal more readable than James' novel of the year before, but that's not to say I have any great love for this one. Henry James seriously needed to write about something other than European sophistication contrasted with American naivety and crudity (how many times can you tell the same story?), but this novel does tackle that theme about as well as James was ever going to. I have nothing against people who like James' writing; each to his own. But I don't know that I've ever read an author whose style has annoyed me more. People praise James for his pychological complexity and his mastery of subtext. His novels certainly are full of subtext; it's practically overflowing the pages. But a novel that's all subtext is no better than one that wears its agenda on its sleeve. I understand the influence James had on literature. He acted as a kind of bridge between the moral simplicity of the Victorians and the more psychologically ambiguous writing of the Modernists. But as with many literary figureheads, knowing and understanding his influence does not necessarily make him enjoybable to read.
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