Charming Lambert Strether, the middle-aged hero of Henry James’s novel, The Ambassadors, may, or may not, technically be a virgin. Although James never directly writes a sex scene, the uncomfortable lack of eroticism in The Ambassadors is unprecedented in his fiction.
The protagonist’s innocence may be exaggerated. Strether, an American tourist who settles for several months in Paris to spy on his future stepson, is engaged to be married to Mrs. Newsome, a middle-aged factory owner in Woollett, Massachusetts. The factory manufactures an item too embarrassing to be mentioned, says Strether, and given his innocence, it might be condoms. Strether is the editor of a journal owned by Mrs. Newsome, but for all his professional experience, he is incapable of imagining the sexual mores outside of Woollett. And that can be particularly exasperating to the modern reader, since we know that James’s friend and contemporary, Edith Wharton, was at this time writing fiction that explored sexual mores and sexual hypocrisy. Sex also is at least obliquely referred to in James’s other novels, and particularly in his two other Golden-period novels, The Golden Bowl and The Wings of the Dove. Of course James was gay, and he could not write about homosexual relationships in 1903, and he claims that Strether is a widower, but that does not explain the awkwardness of the depiction of Strether.
It is as though something vital to life is missing in Strether’s character, the passion that might have hastened Strether’s marriage to Mrs. Newsome if he had wanted it. He is a widower whose child has died. In Paris he becomes aware that he has missed out on the joys of life. He used to be proud of Woollett, but Paris makes him understand the limits of that culture.
What we do know about Strether is that he is incapable of understanding that Chad Newsome, whom his mother, Mrs. Newsome, believes has loitered too long in France, is having an affair with the beautiful, intellectual, animated Madame de Vionette, a French countess separated from her husband and living with her teenage daughter. Since it is Strether’s job to be an “ambassador” and persuade Chad to return home and take over the company’s advertising, it is uncanny that he cannot see what is in front of him. But as soon as we hear the word advertising, we understand its tainted associations in literature (I have nothing against the professionals), and that Strether tacitly disapproves of the profession slated for Chad. Perhaps Strether romanticizes the relationship between Chad and the countess to save Chad from the literary taint of advertising.
All the other characters in the novel are aware that the couple have a sexual relationship. Even Mrs. Newsome and her imperious daughter, Sarah Pocock, and Sarah’s sweet, goofy husband, Jim Pocock, know. Strether’s grave friend, Mr. Waymarsh of Milrose, Connecticut, also recognizes the situation. And Strether’s special American friend, Maria Gostrey, whom he met in England, protects him from the knowledge of the affair, because she adores Strether and doesn’t want him to be hurt. She speculates that the countess is training Chad for her daughter, Jeanne. This seems downright weird, but Strether embraces it.
That theory of romantic chastity is acceptable to Strether. He refuses to recognize the real relationship: he idealizes the couple. He adores Madame de Vionette’s sophisticated parties and the aristocrats and painters he meets there. He believes that Chad, who has become elegant and polished by proximity to Madame de Vionette, a slightly older woman, owes everything to to her. And he finds the older woman-younger man romantic friendship very chic.
As indeed it would be, if it were quite as Strether imagines.
As for Chad, he doesn’t confirm or deny, till later in the novel. His policy seems to be to let well enough alone. His friend, little Bilham, an impoverished American artist, delivers a few hints to Strether about the couple. He assures Strether that Chad and Marie have “a virtuous attachment.” Strether takes that literally, believing it means non-physical, rather than a sincere and heartfelt sexual relationship. Little Billham also hints that Chad is tired of the relationship and might be ready to go home to Woollett. Strether literally refuses to hear this.
The style of this late novel, published in 1903 during James’ Golden period, is elegant, sophisticated, and intellectually challenging Although audiences booed James’s play in the 1890s and criticized his artificial dialogue, it seems just right in his novels, though not quite in this one. I am mad about the characters and dialogue in The Golden Bowl and The Wings of the Dove, but can never quite believe in Strether or in what he says. Some critics compare Strether to the innocent Isabel Archer, the young heroine of The Portrait of a Lady, but it seems ridiculous to me, since Strether is in his fifties.
When finally he learns the truth of Chad’s relationship, he has trouble accepting it, but when he learns that Chad is of his own volition preparing to return home and manage the company’s advertising, Strether intercedes with praise of the countess.
“You owe her everything – very much more than she can ever owe you. You’ve in other words duties to her, of the most positive sort; and I don’t see what other duties – as the others are presented to you – can be held to go before them.”
Strether’s support of the failing relationship is belated, and his change of attitude abrupt. Yet Paris has taught him flexibility, and he has the satisfaction of knowing he has taken nothing for himself during these strange negotiations. And finally, along with the other American expatriates, he embraces the joy of life.