Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Dull as dishwater

Dull as dishwater. It appears that Howells had nothing to write about and did so for roughly 400 pages. The conversations, especially those with the Reverend Walker and more especially those about Savanarola, are dreary, virtually pointless and meander on for an eternity--filigree and no more. The descriptions of Italy would have been best left to travel books and those of the carnivals are ordinary at best. The conflicts confronting Colville, while typical of the literature of this period, seem as forced and artificial as his surrounding characters. Altogether, the novel has no spark and had I not decided to read all of Howells' novels, I would have put it down long ago."The Ambassador" leaves this work decidedly in the dust.