ambassadors, the, by james, henry

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it is very slow going, and i'm about to stop reading it unless you tell me not to.

it's not only a painful read, there's little payoff anywhere. i'm on page 144 or so.

i read portrait of a woman and i wasn't expecting this.

should i stay or should i go?

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

leave it

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 10:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I have been stuck in the early 100s of this book for about 6 months. :(

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 11:07 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, thanks! i feel better now. left.

― John (jdahlem), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I have been stuck at p.20 for 9 years,.

― the bellefox, Thursday, 18 November 2004 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)

― the bellefox, Thursday, 18 November 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck do i loathe the lubgrious uselessness of james, i have no idea why anyone would bother crawling through this rice pudding nonesense.

― anthony, Friday, 19 November 2004 07:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never read Henry James, but after reading The Line of Beauty (which everyone else seems to dislike / wonder what the fuss is about / forget to take back to the library), I thought I might try the fellow. All those references. What do they mean?

Perhaps not. I need something more challenging. Harry Potter 5 is duller than an unshiney coin.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 19 November 2004 09:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Lubgrious should so be a word.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 19 November 2004 09:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Potrait of a Lady is a grand novel, MikeyG, but maybe not after Harry Potter 5... but yes, i abandoned The Ambassadors myself after 50 or so pages. I simply could not understand the language.
it happens sometimes.
particularly with james

― misshajim (strand), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I like James, in a way. From a distance. The James references were what I objected to in In The Line of Beauty.

I have changed the title to make it sound more exciting.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 19 November 2004 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

That's funny!

― the bellefox, Friday, 19 November 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i didn't realize they had a harry potter 5 already.

portrait of a lady moves quickly enough but yeah i wouldn't recommend it if you're just coming off harry potter, because it's long and that's long. i'd want to read something relatively short myself. daisy miller would seem most logical.

i thought i could understand the ambassadors well enough but crawl is the word...you sort of have to read, slowly, then get what they're on about, then go back, and re-read, slowly. and it really doesn't seem worth it. but i was afraid it was just me! i really do feel better, thank you all.

so is there any late james that's readable or is it all like this?

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i should say i don't think james is lugubrious, or useless.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

'In the Cage'!!!

I think it's late James.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 20 November 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

nine months pass...

i am shocked and pleased to have my prejudices confirmed by the pinefox and mr nipper. and here i was slowly warming up to the idea of buying some james to sit on my shelf and not read for a long time.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 28 August 2005 08:03 (twenty years ago)

Have you read his brother?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 28 August 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

a smidge. he's likeable.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 28 August 2005 13:08 (twenty years ago)

Well I like likeable, but that doesn't make him sound worth tracking down and reading.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 28 August 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

a classic in intellectual history?

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 28 August 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

IS IT?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 28 August 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

i don't think pf and jn are saying james suxx.

i still don't think he suxx, either. aspern papers rulz.

― John (jdahlem), Monday, 29 August 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

confirmed indirectly, let's say.

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 00:56 (twenty years ago)

this is crushing news.

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

wait what?

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

I mean, I'm told his brother is a better writer. This may be a backhanded compliment, though.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

well dude's eloquent, but then i'm basing that on the touched-up lectures of 'varieties', which probably gets a little boost by keeping speech in mind. i've never made it past page 2 of 'pragmatism', say.

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 02:44 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

the word "Wonderful" appears 103 times in the novel.

― nostormo, Sunday, 27 April 2014 19:40 (eleven years ago)

I had a hard time with the last third of What Maisie Knew; should I not bother w this?

― Drugs A. Money, Sunday, 27 April 2014 19:57 (eleven years ago)

one month passes...

Belated response because I usually just hang out on sna so threads like this vanish instantly but I think you should give this a shot eventually, but it is very dense and slow. I'm staying away from late-period James for now--been slowly working my way backwards from this point. I really loved this book but it was exhausting at times. Stick with the early stuff for now, I guess?

― cwkiii, Friday, 6 June 2014 02:57 (eleven years ago)

Actually, it's the fastest of his 20th century trilogy: breaking the thing into odd pear-shaped "books" helps. The novel's success depends on whether you want to parse the dynamics of the Vionnet-Chad court.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 June 2014 03:03 (eleven years ago)

His advice to readers was to never read more than five pages a day, which was a pretty solid strategy, even if I didn't totally stick to it.

― cwkiii, Friday, 6 June 2014 03:18 (eleven years ago)

And yeah, I did get a bit of a sense that it's the fastest/probably "easiest" of the late trilogy, based on an aborted attempt at The Golden Bowl.

― cwkiii, Friday, 6 June 2014 03:20 (eleven years ago)

Lol I am reading five pages per day of Roderick Hudson. I might hold off for a while

― nova ydal (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 7 June 2014 08:39 (eleven years ago)

(actually RH is p breezy, I am just having trouble finding enough time atm.)

― nova ydal (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 7 June 2014 08:40 (eleven years ago)

i've tried james several times and never been able to work through anything to completion. got a copy of the ambassadors sitting on the shelf waiting for me to be ready for it though it has been there for at least five years and there's no indication that the time will ever be right

― building a desert (art), Saturday, 7 June 2014 12:05 (eleven years ago)

NOT the novel to start. Go with Washington Square, which you'll finish in a day.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 June 2014 12:46 (eleven years ago)

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