Henry James, 1903 date read: 3/7/22
"Why use two words when you can use forty-seven instead?" - Henry James, probably
This book was 442 pages in the edition I have (Barnes & Noble 2007) and the entire story could probably have been condensed to about 130 pages. There are just pages and pages and pages - absolute walls of text - repeating and repeating the same things over and over and over.
It kind of reminded me of arguing with my narcissistic ex-husband - he would spew verbal vomit in order to overwhelm me and exhaust me so I couldn't continue my line of questioning. It was like that, but even more voluble.
This edition came with some questions at the end for you to answer for yourself? I guess? I don't know. It isn't a book club edition or one for schools. Anyway, here they are, with my responses.
1. What can the prose style of The Ambassadors accomplish that a more direct, less circumlocutious style cannot? On the other hand, what can James's style in The Ambassadors not accomplish that a more direct style, one with few qualifying phases [sic], can?
It can accomplish the use of the maximum number of words used to say the absolute least. I assume they meant "phrases" and not phases, in the second part of the question, and the answer is: not a lot. He could have used a more specific word instead of using a vague term that required endless qualification.
2. James's central characters do not have jobs, and their joblessness condition is related to the superior perspective on things, their ability to see. Is this circumstance convincing? Is it lamentable? Snobbish?
I don't have a job. Pretty sure that doesn't give me a "superior perspective" on things. I think it's just bullshit.
3. Does the novel give you a lift, make you feel good? Or is it a "downer"? Would you have felt better if Strether had gotten married? Or would you have felt worse?
This novel bored the hell out of me. It took me ages to read because I was so uninterested in it. I do think Strether should have married Maria instead of continuing to drag her along without any kind of real intimacy or promises. He's a bit of a cad. But it didn't make me feel any kind of way other than disappointed that I dragged myself through that entire 400+ page word salad and it ended with everybody in the same place they started in.
4. Would you like to have been a member of the social circle into which Strether gradually inserts himself? What are its attractions? What is objectionable about it?
I'd happily take their money. I am very much an introvert, I have no objection to people having groups of friends, but I also have no interest in it for myself.
I don't understand what these questions were meant to prove or provide, but there you go, I've answered them, typos and all.
Time to read: a week
Rereadability: oh god, I can't imagine why I would punish myself like that
Classic: No. Boring af and utterly banal
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