Tom's Two Cents: "The Ambassadors" by Henry James

Last week when our little book club finished Henry James's next to-next to last novel (and the one he thought his best) we all pretty much asked ourselves, "Why?"  Why did he think so?  Why did at least some of (but not all) the literary critics think so?  Why does James rank so high in most literary circles?  "The Ambassadors" is not, in my opinion, worth all the fuss.  In fact, none of the last three of his novels are even accessible to the general reading public.  One has to work too hard to hack through his jungle of words and freakish syntax (a subject is hardly ever in sight of a predicate in a typically obtuse and lengthy James sentence) to make any sense at all of what he is saying, and even when one does, it rarely seems worth the trouble.  So then why am I bothering to write this review?  Because I think James is well worth reading, but not the later James.

First, a few words about the author himself.  A fussy, privileged New Englander, he spent most of his life abroad in Europe, especially France and England, where he eventually acquired a country home in Rye, Sussex, and entertained many men and women of letters.  He wrote and published a great many novels, short stories and wrote hundreds of letters, but his forays into the theatre were not successful, and no wonder--he had little or no ear for the dramatic or theatrical, and action, or plot, the fundamental element of a successful turn-of-the-20th century play, was of little or no interest to him.  What did absorb him was the more subtle play of personality against personality, hardly ever in any open conflict, but quietly sparring with each other beneath the surface of events--hence his reputation for being one of the first "psychological" novelists of the 20th century.  What he says is rarely as provocative as what he means, and what he means is often uncertain and ambiguous.

The short story "The Turn of the Screw" is probably his best short work, and certainly a good example of the ghost story genre.  Reading James's short stories has merit in itself because it is the best way to escape his long windedness.  Yet one of his finest works is a novel, "Portrait of a Lady," which revolves around his favorite theme: the American abroad.  Of course the American in this case is a privileged young lady, Isabel Archer, who becomes hopeless entangled in a European social milieu.  Another Jamesian limitation here: like most good writers, he wrote about what he knew, but what he knew was pretty much limited to the upper stratum of high, cultivated society, especially in Europe.  Edith Wharton, his latter-day friend and American author/compatriot, wrote more about the same world in America, and to my mind her work comes off better, because it is more incisively critical of that society.

Should I say read old Henry at your own risk?  That depends on who you are and what you want in a good book!  Mercifully, we are all different, so James will continue to be read and taught, but in my estimation not widely appreciated.