Nov 12, 2009

The Ambassadors | Introduction

Henry James, kept out of the Civil War due to a back injury incurred while fighting a stable fire, began writing professionally with the publication of his first short story in 1865. Throughout his career, James, aware of the significance of the Civil War, used his writing to help America arrive at a new sense of self. He did this by reassessing America’s relationship with its origins in Europe. James utilized the increasingly efficient transatlantic transportation to capture the true spirit of contemporary Americans in contact with their European peers. In doing so, he showed how the two sides actively engaged each other in an Atlantic community. The best novel of his last period, The Ambassadors, neatly resolves this discussion. In this work, Americans enjoy Paris but then return to America where the grit of life is being manufactured.

The Ambassadors remains one of the few novels whose record of origin appears nearly perfect. The novel began from a “germ” that James captured in his notebook on October 31, 1895. There he records how William Dean Howells, standing in the garden of James McNeill Whistler’s Parisian home, sermonized to the young Jonathan Sturges that he must live while he was young. Then, in September of 1900, in an article for Harpers called “Project of a Novel by Henry James,” James laid out the blueprint of the novel. The piece shows how James constructed from Howells’ speech, reworked as the speech that Lewis Lambert Strether gives to John Little Bilham, the basis of his novel. The actual writing took seven months and James super- vised the novel’s publication process. Published serially in 1903 by the North American Review (where Howells was a literary consultant), the novel’s reception was guided by James’ appraisal of the novel as “the best, ‘all round,’ of my productions.”

The Ambassadors Summary

England
The Ambassadors begins in England. To maintain his social and employment status, Lewis Lambert Strether arrives in Liverpool under orders from his fiancée, Mrs. Newsome. While waiting for his friend, Mr. Waymarsh, who might be of assistance, Strether meets the ever-resourceful Maria Gostrey, who promises undying support. Waymarsh, once he arrives, seems reluctant about helping Strether’s project. While on an outing in the Rows in Chester, Waymarsh reveals his “sacred rage” by dashing madly into a jeweler’s shop. As he does so, Gostrey and Strether realize they are, in comparison to Waymarsh, unsuccessful in life.

The party journeys to London, where Strether has a fabulous night on the town with Maria. While attending a play, Maria recapitulates Strether’s mission as Mrs. Newsome sees it,

Mr. Chad [Newsome] . . . a young man on whose head high hopes are placed at Woollett; a young man a wicked woman has got hold of and whom his family over there have sent you [Strether] out to rescue.

Waymarsh and Strether head for Paris; Maria follows separately.

Arrival in Paris
Strether, who has told Chad he would drop in sometime, seeks out Chad’s apartment on the Malesherbes Boulevard. Strether gains his first impression of Chad through an inspection of this apartment and the housesitter, Mr. John Little Bilham. Far from discovering sordid details and evidence of discredit, Chad’s abode impresses Strether. The next morning, Strether brings Waymarsh to breakfast with Bilham and another of Chad’s friends, Miss Barrace. Afterwards, Waymarsh urges Strether to stop meddling with Chad’s affairs and be done with the whole thing.

Maria arrives in Paris and Strether introduces her to Bilham while they tour the Louvre. She pronounces Bilham “one of us” while speculating about Chad. His wonderful apartment and his absence, for the time being, in Cannes indicate good things, for one does not go to Cannes with a common mistress. Something special is going on. Strether takes a box at the theatre for the group but, with minutes remaining before the show’s start, Bilham has not yet arrived. Just before the curtain goes up, Chad himself enters and surprises the party.

Negotiations
During the show, Strether dwells on Chad’s obvious improvement. After the performance, Strether and Chad adjourn to a café where Mrs. Newsome’s arguments in favor of Chad’s return to America to take up advertising—the family’s business— are laid out. Chad does not refuse to return but hints... » Complete The Ambassadors Summary