The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics) Summary and Reviews

The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics)
by Henry James

The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Henry James
Editor: Philip Horne
Editor: Adrian Poole
Contributor: Adrian Poole
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-24
ISBN: 0141441321
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Book Reviews of The Ambassadors (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: Difficult prose, but comic and moving
Summary: 5 Stars

The prose is certainly difficult, but the extra attention it requires from the reader yields benefits: the slightest nuance in the narrative registers. And, as in all late James, these subtle hints and nuances are of the essence.

I was rather surprised as to how funny it often was. But, as with many great comedies - "Twelfth Night", "Don Quixote" - there is a profound sadness under the surface. There is a passage near the beginning where Strether looks back on the disappointments of his life, and, in particular, his failure to communicate with or understand his son, who is now dead. This passage affected me so deeply, that I had to read it a few times before progressing with the rest of the novel.

Strether becomes increasingly aware that life has passed him by, and that in the course of it all, he has missed something: but what it is he has missed he can not specify. He urges the young people around him to live, but his instructions on how to do so are necessarily vague. Eventually, he has to to reject the narrow puritanical code which has fettered his life, but remains to the end a quixotic figure, clinging on to his moral integrity even when all around him appear to lose theirs. The closing episodes of this novel are as moving as anything I have read.

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