It's not just fancy dinner parties and cool people who make Strether want to stay in Paris; it's the city itself, with all its history and beauty. When he looks around, Strether can't help but compare the beauty of Paris to the boredom of the small New England town of Woollett. There's really just no comparison.
So much so that at many points in the book, you might start to wonder if Strether is drunk or high while walking around Paris. The sights and sounds of the city totally intoxicate him, and once he's gotten hooked on the place, there's just no way he can go back to New England (sorry, New Englanders. This was before the Red Sox were back on a roll).
Questions About Visions of Paris
- What kind of language does James tend to use when describing the city of Paris? What specific words are typical in his descriptions?
- What kind of reaction does Jim Pocock have to Paris? How is it similar to Strether's? How is it different?
- Why do you think Henry James chose Paris instead of some other European city as the setting for this book? What particular things does Paris offer that make it appropriate for the other themes James is exploring?
Chew on This
In The Ambassadors, James shows us that a creative, clever person would be crazy to live in The United States when that person could live in Paris instead.
In The Ambassadors, Strether realizes that the problems in his life don't come from himself, but from the fact that he has always lived in Woollett instead of Paris.