The heroine of this powerful novel is the spirited young American Isabel Archer. Blessed by nature and fortune, she journeys to Europe to seek her future, but what she finds may prove to be her undoing. She is courted by three men: an English aristocrat, an American gentleman, and a sensitive expatriate. Her invalid cousin becomes her benefactor and adviser.
But it is after the ingenuous Isabel falls prey to the schemes of an infinitely more sophisticated older woman that her life takes shape. Rich in character and the interplay of tensions, The Portrait of a Lady is a brilliant, timeless, and essential American novel.
Henry James was one of the great fiction writers of the Nineteenth Century and this is deservedly his most popular full-length novel. It is richer than his earlier works (e.g., Washington Square) and more accessible than the later ones (e.g., The Ambassadors). Yes, it is long and it is "slow," as a previous reviewer says. But it is filled with insight, the main characters become fully known to the reader, and the discoveries at the end are stunning. The book tests the ability of people to live freely in a world of tight social convention. Slow down, listen carefully, and become exposed to a world in which human experience could be and was expected to be far more nuanced and civilizing than contemporary life encourages us to know.
slow start
Written by Anonymous on August 22nd, 2007
Book Rating: 2/5
Maybe this book is a really slow starter but I got through 2 cds of 20 and thought there must be a better use for another 18 hours of my life. By the end of cd 2 we've been introduced to a set of characters, but not given much reason to care what happens to them. The reading is a little monotone, the text a little wordy. I fell asleep a few times before giving up.
