The Ambassadors
1903
Lambert Strether arrives in Paris with a simple mission: rescue Chad Newsome from the clutches of a dubious French countess and return him to Massachusetts and the family business. His fiancée Mrs. Newsome has sent him as her ambassador, her moral instrument. But Paris does what Paris does. The city that should repel instead seduces; the young man who should be corrupted proves remarkably refined; and Strether himself, sent to judge, discovers he has spent his entire life judging wrongly. James transforms what begins as a comedy of American manners into something far more unsettling: a man confronting the yawning chasm between the life he's actually lived and the one he might have lived. The Ambassadors is deceptively quiet, its psychological devastation delivered in exquisitely precise prose. It is for anyone who has ever arrived somewhere too late, or wondered whether transformation is still possible when you've already missed your own life.
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“Live all you can: it's a mistake not to. It doesn't matter what you do in particular, so long as you have had your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?””
— Henry James
“Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had? … I haven’t done so enough before”
— Henry James
“Live all you can; it's a mistake not to.””
— Henry James
“When it's for each other that people give things up theydon't miss them””
— Henry James
“Oh we're not loved. We're not even hated. We're only just sweetly ignored.””
— Henry James
“The prompt Paris morning struck its cheerful notes”
— Henry James
“I'm a perfectly equipped failure. (...) 'Thank goodness you're a failure- it's why I so distinguish you! Anything else to-day is too hideous. Look about you- look at the successes. Would you be one, on your honour?””
— Henry James
“He was burdened, poor Strether”
— Henry James
“And she really had tones to make justice weep.””
— Henry James
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James, Henry. The Ambassadors. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-ambassadors-b536f614-df7a-479e-b42b-6de7ce89a61c.James, H. (1903). The Ambassadors. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-ambassadors-b536f614-df7a-479e-b42b-6de7ce89a61cJames, Henry. The Ambassadors. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-ambassadors-b536f614-df7a-479e-b42b-6de7ce89a61c.
