Finished: The Ambassadors (James) Lordy Henry James is wordy! I had forgotten how cumbersome he is to read when I decided on this, which is supposed to be his "best" work; and, it was...a very good book...just so very complicated to read! If you were to take the conversations out of the book, which to me were the imperative movers of the action in this story, they'd probably take up about 40 pages, at the most, of the over 400 page book. I would have definitely loved more of the conversations between the main characters rather than the in depth supposings and wonderings and personal discoveries we got from the rambling thoughts of the main character, sigh. As it is, I'm really glad to have read the book and only wish that there had been a more definitive ending as well. The Ambassadors, set in the early 1900's, is about reserved, possibly stodgy, 55 year old New Englander, Lambert Strether, who travels from America to Paris to retrieve the wayward son of his "fiance", Mrs. Newsome. Her twenty-something son, Chadwick, or Chad as we know him, has been over in Paris for three years now and she thinks it's time he comes home and takes over the responsibility of his deceased father's wealthy firm. She and her daughter, Sarah, are terribly concerned that Chad has become a reckless, irresponsible, caddish man who is associating with all manner of people beneath them in Paris. In particular, they are worried that a lowlife woman has put her hooks in Chad and that he has fallen under her spell and is daily, hourly, by the minute, becoming more and more depraved. They want him home. Strether, with no real job or income of his own, other than putting his name on a magazine that Mrs. Newsome owns, is their perfect mouthpiece to go and convince Chad that he needs to come home. However, the minute that Strether steps off the ship in France, he is overwhelmed with the beauty, and the life of the place. He does go to find Chad, and expecting a sarcastic "ass" of a young man, he finds a matured, mannerly, polite, friendly, very likable young man in his place. Chad has grown up, and for the better. Chad's friends are also just as charming, and Strether at once finds the entire environment intoxicating and liberating to his own weary soul. Strether is soon introduced to the Mademoiselle Jeanne de Vionnet, and assumes the young girl is the one who has stolen Chad's heart and kept him in Paris. However, it is really Jeanne's mother, Marie de Vionnet...the married, yet separated from her husband, woman who has taken Chad under her wing and made him the man he is. She is in love with Chad and he with her. Marie equally charms Strether to the point that he begins to think it would be better for Chad to stay in Paris. Chad, however, resigns himself to going home and is ready to break his ties with Marie. He knows there's really no future with her since he can never marry her. However it becomes Strether who convinces him to take more time there. Truly, Strether just wants more time there for himself, I believe. In a cathartic speech to one of Chad's young friends, Bilham, Strether expresses the importance of living while you can and doing so in one's youth, as the young men are. Strether thinks back to getting married at a very young age, and then losing both his beloved young wife and young son early in the marriage. After that, he never went out and enjoyed life, and here he is 55 years old. For the first time in decades he is feeling, seeing, breathing life. Of course, it helps that he met the lovely Maria Gostrey on the ship over to Paris, and she becomes his sort of tour guide around Paris. She falls for him, and he struggles with wondering if he truly has feelings for Mrs. Newsome at all since he both falls for Miss Gostrey and comes to be so charmed by Chad's love, Marie de Vionnet. In any event...when Strether fails to produce the desired results, Mrs. Newsome stops communicating with him and sends her married daughter and her husband over to seal the deal. Chad shows them all a wonderful time, but the daughter doesn't budge. She's disgusted by his life in Paris and says he needs to come home immediately. Chad says he will do whatever Strether recommends, which puts the entire thing on Strether's shoulders. And Strether, coming to understand the depths of the feelings and intimacy between Chad and Maria, declares to Chad that he would be a "beast" to leave Maria and go home. Chad, however, seems to possibly be not quite as attached as Madame de Vionnet, so though we don't ever find out the decision he makes (stay or go)...ugh!!...we get the feeling that he will eventually head on back to take over the company. Meanwhile, Strether decides to sail back to America as well, and give up the sure love of Maria Gostrey to head for the uncertain relationship that may or may not remain with Mrs. Newsome. I would really have liked a little epilogue that summed it all up so I'd know how everyone ended up! It was refreshing that there really wasn't an evil character in this book. And, there was no catastrophic death or sad ending to the book. It was just a very involved character analysis of a few good people and the situations they got themselves into. In all, a very good book. :-)