{"id":2190,"date":"2016-01-10T09:06:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T08:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2020-05-31T00:13:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T22:13:53","slug":"die-gesandten-henry-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2016\/01\/the-ambassadors-henry-james\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ambassadors \u2022 Henry James"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Until now, I only knew Henry James by Washington Square<\/em>, although I hadn\u2019t read that or any of his other books. When this handsome, newly translated edition appeared from Hanser, I couldn\u2019t resist and simply had to have it. The content sounded very tempting as well, since I love society novels, and this struck me as a pure example of the genre. Plus, after my rather extensive excursions into the world of French literature, I finally wanted to read something by American or English authors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The story proper runs to 575 pages, with another 130 pages of rich notes and supplemental information\u2014something I always enjoy. After finishing a classic, I often feel the urge to read up a bit more, and afterwords, timelines, and contextual material are a very welcome addition. With its thin paper, high-quality production, sturdy binding, and two ribbon bookmarks, you really have a beautiful, bibliophile little volume in your hands\u2014elegant in color and finish, though the flip side is the price.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Die<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The story opens with Lambert Strether\u2019s arrival in Chester, having come from a small American town. There, he is to meet a friend\u2014also from America\u2014and set off for Paris to bring Chad Newsome back home. \u201cHome\u201d in this case is the fictional city of Woollett, economically important but anything but a major metropolis. Chad\u2019s mother has dispatched him to retrieve the supposedly dissolute young man and bring him back into the embrace of family and firm.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It took me some time to get used to this rambling, convoluted, and somehow peculiar style. Everything is told from Strether\u2019s perspective: he presents himself as very decorous and composed, yet at first he doesn\u2019t seem the brightest. Since I haven\u2019t read anything else by Henry James, it\u2019s hard to say whether this is his general style or a deliberate choice to characterize his protagonist. In any case, the chosen language suits this provincially minded bourgeois perfectly\u2014fifty-five, widowed, a solid and sedate life to date\u2014who nevertheless manages, through various encounters in worldly Paris that are quite unlike his own temperament, to navigate surprisingly well. At least, that\u2019s how it seems, and in sum James reverses the expected picture: old Europe appears modern, chic, and gallant, while the American comes off as antiquated, plain, and not very witty. I found Strether rather taxing, and at times the book\u2019s pace very slow. Now and then I wanted to give Strether\u2014and his trains of thought\u2014a shove. Compared with other books where things heat up five pages in, everything here feels ponderous and slow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What\u2019s interesting is that the reader initially gropes in the dark: motives, background for the journey, the characters and their thinking, their backstories and essential traits\u2014all this emerges only bit by bit as the novel progresses. The characters aren\u2019t laid out plainly from the start; our image of them is built up step by step. In this respect, the dialogues are pure pleasure, and however sluggish Strether\u2019s thoughts are at first, the conversations are all the more exciting. This is surely also because the various figures present themselves as interesting people, and it\u2019s not clear how they think and act. That uncertainty leaves a constant unknown in the narrative, and I repeatedly found myself trying to guess their motives in advance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“[…] and he again felt the vague sensation of moving through a labyrinth of enigmatic, secret hints.” (p. 262)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This brief quotation describes the book beautifully. It\u2019s the many small nuances\u2014the subtleties in the dialogue and the hints\u2014that make it compelling. Madame de Vionnet in particular is a fascinating character: multi-layered, intelligent, and gracious. Encounters with her were a delight, and the conversations had a brilliance I\u2019ve so far only found in classics. Both the main figures and the supporting cast feel very realistic; I consistently had the sense that these were real people.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As the story progresses, Strether grows on you and increasingly takes on an observant role that suits him well. James\u2019s protagonist is remarkable here because he is the novel\u2019s voice, and we see the entire action exclusively through his eyes. He observes keenly, becomes quite sensitive by the middle of the book, and ponders every detail. He entertains many illusions, remains very passive, and influences events more by what he does not do than by what he sets in motion. In many places James becomes very precise, dissecting situations, thoughts, and the exact reactions of each person.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s fascinating how Henry James spins a fine, expansive web of relationships, gradually revealing and uncovering it as he widens the circle of characters. In this way, a very realistic social fabric emerges in which each person has his or her own drive and aims\u2014never overblown, but entirely plausible. It\u2019s not about grand drama, life and death, love or hate, as in many classics with sharper edges. Essentially, it\u2019s only a question of whether Chad will return to America or not\u2014and even that, after many pages, feels surprisingly unspectacular, because the relationships among the people increasingly take center stage, which James skillfully unveils step by step. And yet, precisely through the dialogues, which suggest many facets and also cast light on the speakers themselves, this becomes a very engaging process of development.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As readers, we get an ever clearer picture of the individuals and develop a feeling for them, much as we form an abstract sense of real people we come to know over time. We don\u2019t remember every encounter and conversation, but we grasp what makes a person, how they are, how they react in certain situations, what they feel and think. I believe you could read the book ten times and continually discover new sides to the characters. A particularly intriguing question\u2014more peripheral here\u2014that recurs in literature of this period (as in Anna Karenina<\/em> or Effi Briest<\/em>) is the social legitimacy of a partnership between man and woman\u2014not so much from society\u2019s viewpoint, but in terms of its meaning for the individuals under the abstract pressure of convention.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Die<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The afterword\u2014an essay James placed before the novel in the 1909 New York Edition\u2014sheds light on his thinking about style, narrative perspective, characters, and of course the subject. I\u2019d never encountered something like this in quite this form, and I found it fascinating to read, first-hand, what the author of a classic had in mind. There he identifies Strether\u2019s realization that he has led a rather humdrum life\u2014his sense of having failed to use his youth, of looking back on a missed time and an apparently unlived life\u2014as the novel\u2019s central theme. His change of heart and his illusory belief that he can make up for it make him a particularly interesting figure. James also explains that the strong self-reflection and the appearance of some characters are owed to Strether\u2019s limited perspective. His aim was not to spoil that limitation by retrospection or by shifting narrative perspectives or narrators. Credit where it\u2019s due: he composed the book wonderfully so that, despite the narrow viewpoint, the entire scene\u2014the inner logic behind people\u2019s actions, their motives, their personalities, and ultimately the whole social web\u2014is illuminated with great clarity and becomes comprehensible to the reader.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

An extensive editor\u2019s afterword and a timeline offer insight into the novel\u2019s development, its historical context, and Henry James\u2019s life. As one expects from Hanser, the result is a very successful overall package. It would be presumptuous to assess the translation\u2019s quality, but in reading the novel and notes I felt the work was very careful, and the style I would attribute to a novelist taking on this subject is well captured.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> With The Ambassadors<\/em>, Henry James presents a very deftly composed novel that, from the strictly limited perspective of its protagonist, manages to scrutinize a social fabric and its individuals in great detail, relate them to one another, and project their thinking and actions onto the main character. Particularly compelling are the excellent, lively dialogues; the multi-layered, realistic people; and the observable transformation that takes place in the Ambassador himself. In many places, though, James reflects too much, pursuing trains of thought so precisely that the novel loses momentum and becomes lengthy in spots. The sentences are intricate, long, and laden with subordinate clauses. For me there was no irresistible pull while reading, and the many hints and the wealth of information between the lines make it necessary to take real time with the book and read attentively and steadily\u2014otherwise you can quickly lose the thread or miss details. And that is precisely the book\u2019s strength: the subtleties of interpersonal communication within the social dance of beautiful Paris. Emotionally, too, it moved me only a little. So The Ambassadors<\/em> remains a recommendation for readers who can handle a certain complexity both linguistically and thematically, who read very attentively, and who take delight in abundant dialogue and in grasping finely nuanced social relationships.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information: <\/strong>The Ambassadors<\/em> \u2022 Henry James \u2022 Hanser Verlag \u2022 704 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783446249172<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until now, I only knew Henry James by Washington Square, although I hadn\u2019t read that or any of his other books. When this handsome, newly translated edition appeared from Hanser, I couldn\u2019t resist and simply had to have it. The content sounded very tempting as well, since I love society novels, and this struck me … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Ambassadors \u2022 Henry James”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Die Gesandten \u2022 Henry James - lesestunden","description":"Henry James war mir bisher von Washington Square ein Begriff, wobei ich weder dieses noch ein anderes Buch bisher von ihm gelesen habe. Als im Hanser Verla"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-2190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-henry-james"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/die_gesandten_beitrag.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}