James Commentary (January 25, 2011)
I find the narrative in The Ambassadors dense and almost impossible to navigate. This is not a book I recommend simply picking up and starting in on without some sort of background. I think that in my case, it was this lack of foreknowledge that is locked me out of the story as a whole for a while. But while the greater story and plot of Ambassadors was a mystery to me for a while until I did some more research[J1], some of the earlier passages resonated rather well with me for that very reason.
I’m thinking specifically of Strether’s meeting with Maria Gostrey in chapter two of Book First. As I read it the first read-through, he was practically ambushed[J2] by Miss Gostrey after catching her eye on the ferry to England. He’s ill at ease around her, indeed seems to be ill at ease around most people. But especially in her case, as she comes on quite strong, knowledgeable, and has the upper hand on him, already knowing his (last) name.
Quickly finding himself with a new friend, Strether finds himself at a loss. He babbles on about topics at times only tangentially related (such as his birth place), trying to shake his guilt over letting himself be pulled away from responsibilities he knows he should get back to, first of which is meeting with his friend. I felt very much like Strether as I tried to ease myself into the novel, not really sure what was going on, who these people were, and what I should expect next. But after reading a little more background on the book, and getting farther into his situation, I also gained more comprehension. And although there were still plenty more twists and turns, like Strether I was able to get my feet under me, so to speak, and was no longer completely lost in a new and unfamiliar world.
[J1]If I am following you, you mean that the story itself is hidden or obscured, but if you retrieve the storyline in another format, you can find your way. Thus the narrator is the ultimate in sophistication, a super-Chad or super-Maria Gostrey. “Sophistication” then means to us not just knowing, of course, but armed with knowing against other armed combatants. Discussing the book in this way makes the narrator’s curious references to ‘violence’ more intelligible, such as the characterisation of Sarah Pocock’s interview with Strether, another way to understand what HJ means by “the treacherous years”—this is war by other means.
[J2]this sounds like a wonderful American word, Strether in leather chaps and cowboy boots, but in fact it is a good ME and OF word.