It's a sad but true fact that Lewis Lambert Strether has spent his entire life playing it safe. Watched his best days pass him by. Now he's fifty years old and doesn't have any exciting memories of his youth. Sometimes this fills him with despair, but other times it makes him committed to enjoying the time he has left as much as he can.
He especially makes an effort to tell his young friend Bilham to enjoy youth while he still has it, because if there's one thing that's worse for Strether than being old, it's watching someone who is young letting life pass him by.
Questions About Old Age
- Do you think Strether's being too hard on himself for thinking he's wasted his life? Why or why not?
- Does Madame de Vionnet want to keep Chad around because she truly loves him, or because she likes dating someone who's ten years younger than her?
- Do you think that Strether really would do things differently if he could relive his youth, or is this just a fantasy that everyone tells themselves?
- What sorts of things in this book tend to remind Strether about the youth he's wasted? Why do these things in particular remind him of his age? Use specific examples from the text to support your answer.
Chew on This
In The Ambassadors, James shows us that it's an unavoidable fact of life that old people wish they could relive their youths.
In The Ambassadors, we learn that it's never to late to start living an exciting, fulfilling life.