Henry James likes to stuff as many clauses, appositives, interjections and the like into each sentence as is possible, which makes reading and understanding his text a chore. I have been accused of over-using commas myself, but I could not begin to compare with this text. See, for example, two sentences taken from early in the book when I was especially frustrated.

The woman in the world least formed by nature, as she was quite aware, for duplicities and labyrinths, she found herself dedicated to personal subtlety by a new set of circumstances, above all by a new personal relation; had now in fact to recognize that an education in the occult — she could scarce say what to call it — had begun for her the day she left New York with Mildred. She had come on from Boston for that purpose; had seen little of the girl — or rather had seen her but briefly, for Mrs. Stringham, when she saw anything at all, saw much, saw everything — before accepting her proposal; and had accordingly placed herself, by her act, in a boat that she more and more estimated as, humanly speaking, of the biggest, though likewise, no doubt, in many ways, by reason of its size, of the safest.

Of course, the differences between my English and idioms and Mr. James’s makes this worse. It was not uncommon for me to read a paragraph (which might span several pages) and find that while I had been lexically scanning the text, I had no idea what I had just read. This was less of a problem than might be expected because many pages go by without anything of importance happening or being said. A long story almost exclusively about interpersonal relationships can be enjoyable if the characters are interesting, but I did not find this to be the case.

I do appreciate that James took two effective and unusual risks. First, at least half of the major characters, with whom the reader would be inclined to sympathize, can be quite monstrous. Second, while I was excited just to reach the end, the ambiguous last paragraph leaves much to think about. In spite of these features, I believe I will be putting off The Ambassadors for some time.