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The Portrait of a Lady

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 30,366 ratings · 1,232 reviews

In a sense, there are two distinctly separate Portraits the 1880-81 First Edition and the New York Edition, which James extensively revised. The editor has meticulously prepared a list of textual variants to facilitate comparative reading of the novel. Nina Baym, F. O. Matthiessen, and Anthony J. Mazzella provide differing interpretations of James's revision process. Henry...more

Paperback, 800 pages

Published August 17th 1995 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published 1881)

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Feb 15, 2012 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books; 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2004-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, 501, pre-1900

*SPOILER ALERT* (Read at your own risk)

My first time to read a book by Henry James.

Reading The Portrait of a Lady, said to be his finest novel, is like getting your workout at a gym.

After a day’s work you are tired. You are already zapped of energy. You feel like going to a bar and have a couple of beer listening to a funky live band or the crooning of a lovely young lady. Or you want to go to a nearby mall and sit in the comfort of a dark movie house. Probably sleep to rest for a couple of hour...more

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May 19, 2013 Petra X rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Edited 18 May 2013
I've been reading a lot of Anthony Trollope's books recently and the stories, characters and writing is so much superior to this that I just can't get into it. "Frothy" is a word that comes to mind, also "was he paid by the word?" like Dickens.

I finished the book, finally. It was a chore. I did not find James' portrayal of a woman's personality convincing. That even though she had the financial power which was the reason why her husband had married her, she would still allow h...more Edited 18 May 2013
I've been reading a lot of Anthony Trollope's books recently and the stories, characters and writing is so much superior to this that I just can't get into it. "Frothy" is a word that comes to mind, also "was he paid by the word?" like Dickens.

I finished the book, finally. It was a chore. I did not find James' portrayal of a woman's personality convincing. That even though she had the financial power which was the reason why her husband had married her, she would still allow herself to be physically and emotionally abused and humiliated. It seemed to be a very conventional view of a woman, that eventually she would give in to her Lord and Master. A woman with an ounce of independence (she did have an ounce, maybe even two) at the beginning would not be the sad creature she was at the end. Marriages were made in light of money and status in those times, in this book, she had both, he had neither, there had to be some sort of mental shift that that would allow her to pretend that these were her husband's and she was in the lower and grateful position. But James didn't write it, so 'Portrait' really didn't make sense.

None of the characters, evil, good or milk-water gained my sympathy. Pansy, the daughter, nearly did, but I wanted to shake her and say 'how could you have lived all these years and not suspected who your mother is? Your father has palmed you off on the nuns all these years, what's with this unquestioning obedience? Its your step-mother has the money, not him, she's the one who can help you, would help you,not your daddy who just wants you to achieve his own social-climbing ambitions'.

I just don't see James as a man who understood women enough to write about them from any but a man's perspective.

I watched the Nichole Kidman film of the book and although Kidman did her best to flesh out the character she was no more rounded than in the book. And Poppy's submissiveness and ignorance were even more unbelievable. Obviously, to James, the main characteristic he associated with women and interpreted thusly by the director, was submissiveness.

Henry James may have deserved his reputation as a Grand Old Man of (American) letters, but not through this book, it just didn't do it for me.(less)

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Sep 10, 2007 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: unexpected, favorites, themaster, americans, ficciones

This is my first James (not counting his little book on Hawthorne and scattered essays on French novelists), and I started it out of a sense of dutiful curiosity. I was not prepared for it to be such an engrossing masterpiece. There so much good stuff here: the psychological portraiture, the descriptive scene painting, the simple human energy of the plot.

James is such an odd bird because he was so steeped in the 19th century French fiction, was a social intimate of such Continental wellsprings...more This is my first James (not counting his little book on Hawthorne and scattered essays on French novelists), and I started it out of a sense of dutiful curiosity. I was not prepared for it to be such an engrossing masterpiece. There so much good stuff here: the psychological portraiture, the descriptive scene painting, the simple human energy of the plot.

James is such an odd bird because he was so steeped in the 19th century French fiction, was a social intimate of such Continental wellsprings of modern fiction as Flaubert and the Goncourts, but he doesn't really resemble them. The need to nimbly and precisely render the meaningful trifles of physical appearance and gesture that you find in Flaubert, and in his faithful heirs Joyce and Nabokov, is nowhere in James. He can evoke and scene-paint with the best of them (Osmond's Florentine villa, Isabel's melancholy wandering around Rome), but it's not his obsession. In his essay on Turgenev, James spends many pages almost chuckling at the energy and time Turgenev spends visually distinguishing and individuating his characters. James is, in that way, backward: by which I mean that his fictional aesthetic is very 18th century, aiming not at visual peculiarity and novelty, but at what Johnson called "the grandeur of generality." The style too is very redolent of Johnson and Gibbon in its rounded, formal pomp, in the pageantry of its circumlocutions. This backwardness may be one significantly "American" trait of James. Henry Adams, George Santayana and Van Wyck Brooks in various places point out that New England intellectual life remained firmly fixed in the 18th century well into the 19th. Johnson, Gibbon and Pope were the household gods of the colonial elite circa 1776, and they remained so long after the American Revolution. In Hawthorne, James actually singles out Hawthorne's vestigially "Augustan" style for special praise. In a book so mindful of American deficiency, the preservation of Britain's 18th century literary aesthetics is viewed as one of the new country's few cultural strengths.

So James's descriptive forbearance makes the vividness of the characters all the more spooky. I can't put my finger the device that does it. It's certainly well hidden (as Walpole said in praise of Gibbon, he is strong but doesn't show off his muscles). Maybe it's the close attention to how a voice quavers or modulates in emotionally significant ways throughout the course of conversation, or the pictorially vague but atmosphere-altering metaphors. I'm impatient to reread this novel, to become acutely conscious of its magic. I can count on one hand the number of times James tells you what Madame Merle is wearing or how she's moving, but she's as alive and embodied as the more closely drawn Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina. I mention Merle in connection with Flaubert's and Tolstoy's heroines and not Isabel because, after this reading at least, I prefer Isabel as a foil for the more interesting Merle, with her deceptively amiable social masks (Merle is a very 18th century figure as well--her scenes always made me think of Lytton Strachey's descriptions of the ready wit, the tact, the armored poise and smooth sociability of ancien regime manners). My interest in the book actually lagged for a month, after Isabel's marriage to Osmond--that is, when Merle was out of the picture. Not that I'd want Merle as the heroine--no, she's a secondary character, and like Ralph Touchett, like Pansy, she goes away having but insinuated or at most only partially revealed her private history. Poignantly mysterious is how I like it.

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Feb 23, 2011 Mariel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sterile dilettantes

Recommended to Mariel by: paint a vulgar picture

I loved getting into Isabel's conflicted mind, her persuasions and her light switches turning on and off for reason. I can relate to that. I get goosebumps, or the shivers, when I can get that feeling outside. Like a soullish thing rubbing up against my skin. Ever feel like there could be ghosts? The freedom in already having lost feelings. Don't know what to do and need to get out, like Isabelle. I don't know what I think about the ending. Henry James could give judgementaly prickish endings to...more

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May 23, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just...I don't know. I have now read The Portrait of a Lady and I'm just feeling a little flat. Like I stubbed my toe on something invisible, and I'm not quite sure what. I'm not sure why this book didn't grab me, I only know it didn't.

I didn't hate it, I was just a little bored by it, and that's an unusual way for me to react to a proclaimed "classic." The story was too sparse, the characters, for all the time we spent with them, not that well-drawn. I didn't really care about anyone, and ha...more I just...I don't know. I have now read The Portrait of a Lady and I'm just feeling a little flat. Like I stubbed my toe on something invisible, and I'm not quite sure what. I'm not sure why this book didn't grab me, I only know it didn't.

I didn't hate it, I was just a little bored by it, and that's an unusual way for me to react to a proclaimed "classic." The story was too sparse, the characters, for all the time we spent with them, not that well-drawn. I didn't really care about anyone, and had no reason to.

The last section of the book was the strongest - it's really what the whole book has been leading up to. But four hundred pages of lead-up for barely a hundred of something happening that was pressing and urgent and upsetting seems to be taking the very long way around. But still. I don't demand a quick-driving plot. I liked Swann's Way. So why not this?

I'm trying to think this through as I write.

It wasn't that this was meandering. It wasn't that meandering. It was more like stasis. People talked to each other about how much they liked Isabel Archer. And then they travelled somewhere. And talked about how much they liked Isabel Archer. And Isabel fretted over being liked. And yet, I still don't feel like I could tell you a damned thing about Isabel's personality. With that much space in which to talk about her, you'd think she'd leap off the page and stand before me, vibrant and alive. It just never happened.

Bad marriages you can't get out of are certainly an interesting topic, but it took so long to come to this one. And the tension felt much less exquisite than in something like The Age of Innocence. Heck, almost every other woman we saw in the novel, barring Henrietta, had left her husband, so the extreme pressure to stay with someone no matter what was kind of a misfire. And none of those ladies really seemed to have suffered overmuch from the experience.

Not a lot of plot, characters I never really believed in. (Except perhaps Henrietta Stackpole, who was a bit of a caricature, but at least she was vivid.) And the prose didn't knock me off my feet. Any of those three might be enough to intrigue me, but for whatever reason, The Portrait of a Lady didn't grab me on any level.

And if James was trying to say something about Europeans as opposed to Americans, I just wasn't getting it. I got some broad strokes, but not the nuance of his argument. If there was nuance.

I feel apologetic when I don't enjoy a book so generally lauded. I'm feeling that way now. And I'll probably try another Henry James eventually, or read this again in a few years and see if that makes a difference. (less)

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Oct 13, 2012 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Ugh, ech, the elitism that breeds in readers! We think we're such nicey cosy bookworms and wouldn't harm a fly but we seethe, we do. Of course, readers of books just naturally look down on those who don't read at all. In fact they try not to think of those people (nine tenths of the human race I suppose, but a tenth of the human race is still a big number) because it makes them shudder. (How lovely it would be to go riding in a carriage through some dreadful council estate flinging free copies o...more

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Oct 17, 2007 Natalia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: english majors and masochists

Shelves: readforschool

Ugh.

If I could describe this book in one word it would be "Laborious."

If I were allowed more space, which apparently I am, I would go on to say that in addition to being deathly slow and horrifically boring it is also a little brilliant, a little impressive, and, if you have the patience to look for it, more than a little interesting.

There's a LOT in here. James wanted this novel to be the antidote to the Jane Austen romance. He wanted to show life as it is- money as a burden, marriage as a tr...more

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May 02, 2008 Yulia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What I love about this edition is that the James expert in the introduction cites all the flaws that were so glaring to me in the beginning of the book: Ralph and his father's constantly applauding Lord Warburton for his fine conversation, the father telling Lord Warburton not to fall in love with his niece (I didn't see that coming!), one of them mentioning how amusing the other is (hahaha). It was just intolerable how heavy-handed the dialogue was. Nor did I find it cute how much of a caricatu...more

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Jun 01, 2008 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

God, it felt good to finish this book. Finally. I started it way back when, in September (EDIT: It turns out I started it on August 15th), and it's taken me this long to finish the thing. Perhaps because of the extended way I read it, in stops and starts for the past four months, or perhaps because of its sheer size, or perhaps because it's quite late and I am quite tired in addition to being quite dim-witted, I am having trouble deciding how I want to review this book. So, with that said, bear...more God, it felt good to finish this book. Finally. I started it way back when, in September (EDIT: It turns out I started it on August 15th), and it's taken me this long to finish the thing. Perhaps because of the extended way I read it, in stops and starts for the past four months, or perhaps because of its sheer size, or perhaps because it's quite late and I am quite tired in addition to being quite dim-witted, I am having trouble deciding how I want to review this book. So, with that said, bear with me.

I enjoy James's style. He writes large sentences, with convoluted syntax, and his vocabulary knows no bounds. This book wasn't quite as difficult to parse as The Turn of the Screw, but still, there was at least one sentence per page that I had to detangle. Like I said, I like that. The other thing, though, is that this novel is old; it was published in 1881, and the content of novels back and the content of them now are vastly different. So, if you don't like entire chapters that are nothing but sitting inside a character's head, following him or her along lines of thought in an attempt not to advance the plot but to enhance the character, then I suggest you skip this book. If you are not a fan of six-hundred page books whose plot can be summarized in a paragraph, move along, move long. If you are a fan of amazingly well-rounded characters who will cause you more frustration than even your ex-lover, if you do enjoy that convoluted style that only a Victorian can create, if you enjoy novels that insist you read them leisurely, at your own pace, perhaps along with other, more action-packed novels... then Portrait is for you.

Basically, the story is about Isabel Archer, an American who moves to England to stay with her aunt and uncle, and the way in which she lived her life. It is arguably a tragedy, although unlike those of Shakespeare, there are in fact people left alive at the end of it. I found my emotions riding a rollercoaster with the characters; one chapter I loved A and hated B, the next I loved B and hated A, the next I forgot who B was and hated him anyway, and the next I started over again, but isn't life a bit like that, our emotions fluctuating with each new layer of a person we peel back and drop off? By the end, I found myself not disliking many of the characters, but having serious issues with the choices they made. Again, though, I think this is intentional, not only because of the time in which the author wrote (over a hundred years ago, buddies!) but also because the author had a point in mind regarding America vs. Europe, individual liberty and social constraints, innocence and corruption, and he gets that point across quite well with his novel.

One of the highlights of the novel is the narrator, who uses the first person often and remains a mystery through the novel's last page. We never find out exactly who is telling Isabel's story. For the most part, the narrator reads as a third-person omniscient, being able to move freely through the minds of all the characters, and yet on occasion he insists on his very lack of omniscience -- "I don't know what so-and-so was thinking" or "What transpired during those few hours is a mystery," things like that. In addition, the narrator chooses not to describe certain events -- Isabel's acceptance of a proposal, her final decision at the end of the novel, etc. -- even though other events her describes in painstaking detail. This sort of give and take, opening up and closing down, is quite interesting, and I'm tempted to read the novel again -- not for awhile, but again some day -- and to pay more attention to these moments of shifting omniscience.

The back of the version of the book I have says that The Portrait of a Lady is "[r]ichly complex and nearly aesthetically perfect." If we are talking about the characters, I concede the first point -- the plot is relatively simple -- but I must admit defeat when I face the second. I am not exactly sure, to be honest, what an aesthetically perfect novel would feel like, but the taste in my mouth when I finished Portrait is not one of aesthetic perfection. This is not to say that I dislike the novel -- in fact, I quite enjoyed it. Ever since I missed the question on the GRE Literature regarding it -- they excerpted the first paragraph and asked which novel it came from, and I had no idea -- I've wanted to read it, and I'm glad I finally did. I intend to read more James, sooner or later, and I do believe I will always have a place in my heart for both the novel and its heroine, even if I don't necessarily agree with the choices she makes.(less)

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Mar 01, 2008 Martine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of good nineteenth-century drama

Shelves: favourites, film, nineteenth-century, north-american, psychological-drama

The Portrait of a Lady has to be my favourite of the fifteen or so Henry James books I've read. The crowning achievement of James' middle period, when he had honed his powers of observation to perfection but had not yet slipped into the long-winded obscurity that makes his later novels so hard to read, it is in my opinion one of the most perfect novels of the nineteenth century. Very little actually happens in it, but what little does happen is described so exquisitely that you hardly notice it'...more The Portrait of a Lady has to be my favourite of the fifteen or so Henry James books I've read. The crowning achievement of James' middle period, when he had honed his powers of observation to perfection but had not yet slipped into the long-winded obscurity that makes his later novels so hard to read, it is in my opinion one of the most perfect novels of the nineteenth century. Very little actually happens in it, but what little does happen is described so exquisitely that you hardly notice it's a whole lot of nothing spread out over 600+ pages. That's masterful story-telling for you.

The Portrait of a Lady centres on Isabel Archer, a young, lively and intelligent American who is taken to Europe by her eccentric expatriate aunt. In Europe, she is courted by eligible bachelors who appreciate her independent-mindedness and wish to see where it will lead her, but for all their attentions, she ends up marrying a cold-hearted bastard who treats her like an ornament and all but breaks her spirit. The rest of the book revolves around the question whether Isabel will stay with her husband out of a sense of duty or live up to her old ideals of independence.

As I said, there's not an awful lot of story here (the above paragraph is a near-complete summary of the plot), but James makes the most of it. With his powerful observations and descriptions and superb characterisation, he paints a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century womanhood and the institution of marriage, of love, loyalty and longing, of purity versus artificiality, of betrayal, of the differences between Americans and Europeans (a recurring theme in his oeuvre) and of major themes in life: duty, honour, commitment, freedom. Isabel Archer is a likeable heroine whose dreams are quite recognisable to the modern reader, so while James keeps his distance from her, analysing her as a case study rather than as a flesh-and-blood human being, the reader feels for her; it's quite torturous watching her go and make the mistakes which will ruin her life. Both Isabel's struggles and the other characters' are described in elegant but sharp and incisive prose. The result is a big book that is subtle yet dramatic, understated yet powerful, and that ranks among the best things James ever wrote.

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Sep 09, 2007 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I expected to like this more than I did. I found it needlessly long, occasionally pompous, and ultimately unsatisfying. Still, there's a lot of good stuff in here: the exciting independence of Isabel in the early chapters, her palpable misery in her marriage, the vivid and memorable secondary characters, and above all (for me, at least) the set pieces. James was always able to make me feel like I knew just what a room or garden looked and felt like -- though he also frequently made me feel as th...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Clare Cannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adults, young-adult

In this magnificent work James explores the types of human love and where they lead, including infatuation and the weakness of the heart—which can affect even the noblest of people—and the strength of character required to live with the consequences of one's choice. Isabel Archer is a joyful, spirited character who is required to mature through deep suffering, and who emerges with the quiet strength and dignity that comes with acceptance of one's responsibility. A wise book for every girl to rea...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Whitaker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canon, 2009-read

Four Portraits of a Novel

An Interview with Sigmund Freud circa 1911

Vell, zis book by zis man--vhat vas his name? Henry James--vas very very interesting. He is obviously a deeply conflicted individual. Quite clearly an invert filled mit self-loathzing, desiring ze men und at ze zame time hating himself for doing zo. Ve haf ze heroine of ze novel, Isabel Archer, who is pursued by two men: both of zem handsome, manly (vun of zem is efen called Goodwood) and very rich. Both of zem prepared to gif h...more

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Sep 11, 2009 David marked it as own-but-not-yet-read · review of another edition

It strikes me that one's experience of reading "Portrait of a Lady", which in my edition clocks in at 630 pages, is likely to be colored by one's previous experience with James, and the resulting predisposition. Since my unlikely conversion upon reading "The Ambassadors", I am quite favorably predisposed. Thus, when instead of telling us that "the three people enjoying tea on the lawn were all men", Henry instead delivers himself of this sentence:

"The persons concerned in it (the tea party) were...more

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May 21, 2013 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, x-1880s, beautiful-words-lets-swim-in-them, chubby-chunksters, heroine-needs-to-be-my-best-friend, literature-i-like, trainwreck-i-have-watched-and-loved, heroine-is-pretty-decent, holy-character-development-batman, epics

This is a book to be devoured slowly and leisurely, in pieces, like a rich chocolate cake. It would be inadvisable to attempt to consume the cake - or this book - in one sitting; even if you were capable of achieving this feat, you would likely be overwhelmed by the richness of both taste and texture. Portrait of a Lady covers a vast landscape of Europe at the turn of the 19th century, depicting social mores and expectations, and the heartbreak of being human.

****SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ONWARD...more

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Jun 11, 2009 Lara Amber rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I made it 40% of the way through this monstrosity before I had to finally throw in the towel. Apparently no one ever told James "show don't tell" judging by the complete lack of action in this book. In fact nothing ever happens. It just drags on and on in an annoying narrative voice that is too fond of metaphor and long descriptive phrases that frequently cloud more then they illuminate. The characters are complete twits, without a single redeeming quality among them. Judging by the way he write...more

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May 02, 2008 Juliana rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with a large vocabulary and a good attention span

When I finished this book, I threw it down on the table in anger and walked away muttering. I guess we all want books to end like.. well, books! Not like real life. We have enough real life around us. Aren't books for escaping all that?

Maybe. This book is probably a classic because it is complex enough to actually resemble the real world. People make mistakes. Small mistakes. Big mistakes. Life-changing mistakes. They also show a lot of spirit and charisma, which is also real. None of the charac...more

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Mar 20, 2008 Ebookwormy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: carp-500

Henry James is, admittedly, long winded. At times, one does feel like you want him to move along already. However, he is always worth the read to me.

In this book, I love the character of Isabel Archer. She is young, full of ideas, wants to travel and see the world and have experiences (i remember being that way!). One must also remember that society for young women at this time was much more restrictive and Isabel's ideas less likely to be satisfied. Her greatest quality, however, is her desire...more

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Jan 12, 2008 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly? Isabel Archer isn't extraordinary at all. So I take this book as kind of a comedy about how a bunch of English pranksters messed with a bland American girl, pretending she was amazing to see what would happen, and then felt pretty bad about it when it turned out wrong. Which is actually pretty close to the real plot, too. The "honest simple faithful guy" found here was way too similar to the farmer guy in "Far From The Madding Crowd" to me, and I guess that's just a stock character. I...more

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Jun 12, 2007 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: romantics, endurance runners

I went into this knowing literally NOTHING about the book or James' writing. This was one of those books where I'd fall asleep after twelve pages, drop it off of the bed and forget it existed for weeks at a time. The amount of months invested in this book eventually made it much more emotionally potent for me. I expected it to go in a stereotypical direction and it shocked me. The last few chapters went by in an excited blur and I cried, shocked, on the metro.

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Feb 17, 2013 Perry Whitford rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Isabel Archer, youngest of three American sisters, the only unmarried, gets taken in by her rich aunt and travels to Europe. She is a lively, disarming young woman whose "deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world" and is armed with "an unquenchable desire to think well of herself". Upon arriving in England she finds herself beset with admirers, which leads to various proposals, which she rebuffs for a while, holding her fre...more Isabel Archer, youngest of three American sisters, the only unmarried, gets taken in by her rich aunt and travels to Europe. She is a lively, disarming young woman whose "deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world" and is armed with "an unquenchable desire to think well of herself". Upon arriving in England she finds herself beset with admirers, which leads to various proposals, which she rebuffs for a while, holding her freedom as a prize higher even than a title. However, thanks in part to the machinations of the accomplished Madam Merle she makes a uncharacteristic decision, but will she find happiness?

As with Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, Isabel Archer's story is about the conflict between her "opportunities" and her "fastidiousness", with the (significant) differences that Isabel inherits the financial means to make her own choices more freely, whilst the characters circling her are a considerably less ruthless and self-serving lot than those Lily has to stand against.
Whilst Lily's capitulation was heart-breaking though, I found Isabel's infuriating, even pointless. After a fat 600 pages I was left asking what kind of portrait of what kind of woman is this? I never got a sense of Isabel's attractions, only of her weakness. We are constantly informed by James and her insufferable admirers that she is an original and dazzling woman, but she never actually says anything remarkable "on stage" at all; and she sure as life never does anything remarkable because she never really does anything at all, save travel to a few countries and turn down a few suitors.

I had been looking forward to finally reading a long Henry James fiction (I have read Turn of the Screw, but that's a short story) after looking over him initially because of the praise the conservative critic F.R. Leavis heaped on him whilst rubbishing the kind of writer's I naturally sought out in my youth. So I unfairly avoided James for many years, but maybe some of that stigma remained because I found myself irritated to the point of prejudice by this book at times. For instance, the characters in this book are obsessed with the concept of the "vulgar", an antiquated aristocratic notion that for some reason infuriates me.
Yes, the writing is first-rate, feathery and seductive throughout, but so is a pillow, and they are made to sleep on. The Portrait of a Lady is similarly soporific, the only aspects which enlivened me from my soporific slumbers as I floated through its tender frame were unfortunately those that rankled me.

I have a copy of The Golden Bough in the house. Should I? (less)

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Oct 06, 2010 Marija rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

When I approach a work written by Henry James, I know that I’m going to be reading something that’s very good and well written… something I’ll end up enjoying. But when it comes to writing about one of his stories, trying to organize all of those dense themes coherently on paper, that’s another matter entirely.

The Portrait of a Lady is certainly one of his masterpieces, providing the reader with a brief study of those formative years for Isabel Archer. She’s the epitome of 19th Century American...more

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May 07, 2008 Eleanor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this book because I have a (personal) interest in the theme of "The American Woman Abroad." This is the quintessential novel that deals with that idea and at first I wasn't dissapointed in the setting, character or drama that was unfolding. I found myself loving the brave, spirited protagonist, Isabel Archer, and imagined that for her challenging 19th century conventions was no small feat. I have to wonder though, what was Henry James thinking when he thought that by "confronting her...more

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Jun 04, 2009 Kristina A rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of the 19th c, classics

Shelves: victorian

ALERT: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!

Goodreads asks what you learned from the book. Here are a few things I learned. (SPOILER ALERT):

1. I don't think marrying a guy who's poor counts as doing something "good" with your money.
2. If the guy you like demands complete and utter submission from his daughter, you might not want to marry him, because there's a good chance he'll expect it from his wife as well, especially if you live in the 19th C. I'm all for children having some discipline, but cr...more ALERT: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!

Goodreads asks what you learned from the book. Here are a few things I learned. (SPOILER ALERT):

1. I don't think marrying a guy who's poor counts as doing something "good" with your money.
2. If the guy you like demands complete and utter submission from his daughter, you might not want to marry him, because there's a good chance he'll expect it from his wife as well, especially if you live in the 19th C. I'm all for children having some discipline, but crushing a little girl's will doesn't make her charming; it's just sad. (Pansy Osborne was for me the most haunting character of the book -- I can't get her out of my head!)
3. If absolutely everyone you know is opposed to your marriage, I don't know, you might want to rethink it. (I mean, there are plenty of fathers who oppose marriages, and it seems ok to me to rebel against them, but this was different. The only literary exception I can think of is Anne Elliot; perhaps Isabel was thinking of her. )

I read the Penguin Classics version of this novel, and it had the worst introduction I can remember ever reading, by a scholar named Geoffrey Moore. This introduction was primarily plot summary supported by weak biographical criticism. But at one point, he writes the annoying but intriguing statement that Isabel is:

"perhaps the first feminist in English fiction (even though she achieves very little). I say this in full recognition of the Elizabeth Bennets, the Cathys, the Jane Eyres, the Becky Sharpes and the Dorothea Brookes, because, however independent they strive to be, they have little in common with Isabel. For one thing they do not have her (American) advantages, and for another they are not allowed to indulge -- as Isabel is, to an extreme degree -- in what Poe called 'ratiocination.'" (16).

Then, without further ado, Moore is back to plot summary, with no further discussion of this statement.

Ok, so first off, if you consider Cathy Earnshaw (I'm assume this is who he's talking about?) to be a feminist, you might be smoking crack, or at least have a distorted view of feminism. I don't know, you might call Wuthering Heights a feminist book for some reason, but Cathy a feminist? I don't think so. Ok, so besides that. Why is Isabel so different from these other characters, especially Dorothea? What the hell are American advantages??? I do think I understand this idea about ratiocination, since by all means Isabel does indulge quite a bit in rational thinking -- until she gets to the extremely freaking important question of her marriage to a guy everyone hates!! -- and James is certainly interested in indulging himself in documenting and explaining each tiny thought of his characters, especially Isabel, but I wonder why Moore claims this makes her more of a feminist. Particularly when compared with Dorothea. I mean, it seems to me quite clear that James was trying to out-Victorian George Eliot. I don't know that much at all about James, but Eliot is his obvious model, right? There were many times, actually, when I felt like I was reading Daniel Deronda without Daniel Deronda. Isabel is less spoiled than Gwendolyn, but their stories are similar otherwise, no? And Dorothea's desire to do good with her money turns out way better than Isabel's does!

Ok, my review is all over the place. But maybe someone who's interested in these questions wants to respond. In any case, I liked the novel very much, though I prefer Eliot, and Edith Wharton for that matter. My favorite character was Henrietta Stackpole, even though she was a little bit of a caricature, and the one that affected me most was Pansy Osborne, whom I hated but also worried about. I'm stilll worried about her.(less)

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May 28, 2008 Avital rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has been a part of my life in the past month, and now that I finished it, it still sinks in. I enjoyed reading such rich prose, full of descriptions of all sorts (adjectives, adverbs...) and deliberate writer's interferences that tell the reader even more about the characters. There is a sense of care about this type of prose, something human, when the storyteller is not as sharp as an ax the way so many write now.
Isabel Archer really came to life for me. She is getting deeper and sub...more

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Jan 15, 2008 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, womenareamystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It took forever to finally finish this book. Reading one review of this book, someone called the novel laborious, and while I cannot disagree, there were other redeeming qualities to this novel that I appreciated.

One of the more interesting aspects was the issue faced by Isabel about whether it was wise for her to continue her marriage with her obviously ill-matched husband, Gilbert Osmond. By every objective measure, Osmond is a jerk and their marriage is an utter failure. Isabel is basically t...more It took forever to finally finish this book. Reading one review of this book, someone called the novel laborious, and while I cannot disagree, there were other redeeming qualities to this novel that I appreciated.

One of the more interesting aspects was the issue faced by Isabel about whether it was wise for her to continue her marriage with her obviously ill-matched husband, Gilbert Osmond. By every objective measure, Osmond is a jerk and their marriage is an utter failure. Isabel is basically tricked into marrying Osmond by Madame Merle, she discovers that her step-daughter, Pansy, is really the daughter of Madame Merle, and her husband is just sort of a jerk. Throughout the novel, Isabel confesses to basically being miserable. Despite all of this, at the conclusion of the marriage when everybody is rooting for her to end up with the much better for her Caspar Goodwood, and she has the opportunity to do so, she chooses to go back to Osmond.

While in one respect I think her decision is simply James’ commentary on the values about marriage and its sanctity in this era, I think there is more going on than first appears. I took from this plot the debate of whether happiness is the highest value in life. I think most of us are taught that following our happiness truly is the greatest ideal and while most of the time I generally agree, I think there are times when concepts like honor and commitment are maybe the greater value. Is the husband of 30 years watching his wife die of cancer happy? Likely not, but he stays (and we would expect him to stay) because he made a commitment and that commitment to honor his vows are more important than him following his bliss and I think that is kind of a real good thing.

Of course I am excluding the obvious situations of violence or betrayal (in whatever form it might take) but I think I am generally convinced that marriage sometimes changes the rules where happiness is concerned. Happiness is still essential. Nobody wants to be miserable in their marriage and no right-thinking person wants their partner to be unhappy, but I guess I am convinced that sometimes happiness should take an occasional backseat to the sometimes greater values of honor, duty, and commitment. Sadly, it seems like so many married couples I know are just so unhappy together. I will often hear these tales of woe from friends and co-workers (some are pretty benign, some down right sad) and I often think to myself, “why stay in that marriage? Life is too short not to be happy.” I guess becoming older I have learned that happiness is only one of many variables in the equation. Deciding whether to continue a relationship that isn’t all romantic misunderstandings and walks on the beach and all the other things we build love up to be isn’t always as simple as asking the question of whether you are happy at that particular moment. The equation changes even more significantly after entering into matrimony.

People stay for a lot of reasons and I think that is not always necessarily a bad thing. In short, I understand Isabel’s decision, and while I may not have liked it as a reader, I think I understand it, and I think I like what it says about her and her character.

Other thoughts I had about the book: I especially liked the theme of money and having the right kind (or, maybe it is the right amount?) of money. I guess poor Ned Rosier simply didn’t have the right kind when it came to Pansy. The obvious theme of Isabel and her yearning for freedom and how the money bequeathed to her (while given with the intention of helping her find that freedom) turned out to actually be the thing that destroyed her freedom and happiness is yet another element that was interesting.

James is a tough read (and I didn't find the Caspar Goodwood or Lord Warburton characters very redeeming), but all in all I would say it was worth it.(less)

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Nov 09, 2007 Nathanial rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is a funny book to read in comparison to Restless House. So much of James' drama comes from his setting you up to admire or be attracted to certain characters for various reasons, and then slowly or suddenly revealing them to be despicable (or vice versa). Zola doesn't give a damn - he expects you to find his characters disgusting, and can't seem to imagine that you wouldn't. Maybe that's part of their different scope of view: James repeatedly addresses us as readers, with flourishes like,...more This is a funny book to read in comparison to Restless House. So much of James' drama comes from his setting you up to admire or be attracted to certain characters for various reasons, and then slowly or suddenly revealing them to be despicable (or vice versa). Zola doesn't give a damn - he expects you to find his characters disgusting, and can't seem to imagine that you wouldn't. Maybe that's part of their different scope of view: James repeatedly addresses us as readers, with flourishes like, "You might have thought, looking at her sitting there, that[...], but you shall see, as I explain, that[...]" Which gets old real quick. But Zola just assumes you're right along with him, with editorial commentary inserted seamlessly into the narrative, as in "He was such a drunk old lecher that he didn't even see how repulsive he was," which is entertaining, too, to some extent, but ends up pathetic.

ANYWAY - James = suspense, intrigue, social niceties. All the private concerns that novels were designed to satisfy: will I fit in? will they like me? how am i supposed to act? now, how have authors adapted his techniques to different purposes? that's what i'm excited to see.

‘I think one ought to be liberal,’ Mildred argued gently. ‘We’ve always been so, even from the earliest times.’

- from Chapter 9

Ah, James is so good at revealing peoples' blind spots, especially when it comes to their own characteristics; he does it so softly that he allows us the gift of not condemning them: at the same time that he delights in their inconsistencies, he forgives them. His narrator is so distant and self-aware that he probably couldn't even sell it to an agent today, and yet the florid and languid pace of his sentences (with their open and crenellated structures) allow for such intimacy that it becomes easy to forgive his assumed authority, because it's seductive. He switches tact from light to pointed, aimless to determined, with a quick agility. Sherman Alexie does similarly.

Fascinating tidbit of the day: Samuel Delaney named James as one of his childhood favorites.(less)

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Jul 26, 2007 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading Colm Toibin's The Master a couple months back, I was interested in reading Henry James. I thought it would take a lot of effort to make it through the 19th century classic, but I was shocked to discover after only about ten pages in that I was hooked. James is the king of description - he can spend pages telling you just how someone sat in a chair, or describing a look on someone's face - presumably this is why it has been said that he does not translate so well to film or stage. T...more

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Dec 31, 2008 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I sometimes worry that my Goodreads page will, if I’m not careful, turn into my personal Society for the Appreciation of Totally Mainstream, Not-At-All-Obscure, Dead European Man-Writers And Their Already-Leatherbound-and-Modern-Library-Canonized Works…but if my (mostly) chaste and (completely) non-ironic passion for Henry James is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. You don't need me to tell you about the finely distilled genius of this book - how the characters link and uncouple from scene t...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Pa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I only faintly remember the moment I fell in love with Paul, but I remember distinctly and vividly the moment I fell in love with The Portrait of a Lady--or more precisely with Henry James' beautiful mind and his art. A masterpiece of intellectual and psychological insight, the Portrait of a Lady tells the story of Isabel Archer, a beautiful young American woman venturing in Europe who after having rejected a couple of marriage offers from very eligible suitors (an English lord and an heir to an...more

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About Henry James

Henry James, OM, son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author, one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the...more

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“It has made me better loving you... it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I really am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything better. It’s just as when one has been trying to spell out a book in the twilight, and suddenly the lamp comes in. I had been putting out my eyes over the book of life, and finding nothing to reward me for my pains; but now that I can read it properly I see that it’s a delightful story.” — 212 people liked it

“I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand; I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.” — 140 people liked it

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