The Portrait of a Lady - Chapters 1-7

[Linda2]

Testing edit and delete

[Linda2]

"Madge wrote: "The terrible new GR format does not allow editing, deleting or flagging. This is the serious omissions for me because using a tablet with a small keyboard means I make a lot of typos...."


I'm on Firefox too. There's no new format here, and I can edit, reply, flag or delete. And yes, I have AdBlockPlus and 20 other addons active.

[Linda2]

Madge wrote: "No I'm not on the App which had the same difficulty so I switched to old format which they have now made like the app! I think programs need adjustments for tablets but they have not been made. I c..."

You can't zoom in by holding CTRL while you roll the mouse wheel?

[Lily]

The marriage style of the Touchett's, with their very independent lives and even international living abodes, suggests a continuity of the present with the past that many of us did not know existed in our younger years. It seems to me as if one is looking at what economic privilege will allow and sustain, along with a differing set of attitudes and relationships from what I have perceived in the past (certainly still in the early 1900's) to be middle-class American family expectations.

[Lily]

I also note that Isabel Archer is another of those "orphan" protagonists. It is often stated that having a heroine with limited family ties (parents, et al) provides an author with a character having greater freedom of movement.

[Everyman]

Lily wrote: "The marriage style of the Touchett's, with their very independent lives and even international living abodes, suggests a continuity of the present with the past that many of us did not know existed..."

They both seem happy with the arrangement, but also we have to recall that divorce was a much rarer and more challenging process in those days, so staying together even when they rarely WERE together made more sense than it might today.

[Everyman]

Lily wrote: "I also note that Isabel Archer is another of those "orphan" protagonists. It is often stated that having a heroine with limited family ties (parents, et al) provides an author with a character hav..."

Good point. Yes, orphans are a favored protagonist for many authors (Dickens had at least one orphan in, I am guessing but I'm fairly sure, as a significant character in at least half of his books.)

So many of the famous heroes and heroines of the Readers Review era were -- Becky Sharp, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, and on and on.

[Lily]

Everyman wrote: "They both seem happy with the arrangement, but also we have to recall that divorce was a much rarer and more challenging process in those days, so staying together even when they rarely WERE together made more sense than it might today...."

It also seemed closer to some modern professional couples adaptations than I expected to encounter; i.e., there are examples in history on "how to do it" gracefully and not necessarily wanting divorce.

[Renee]

I'm just catching up. I seem to be struggling more with James's style than I expected. I find myself gritting bout the litany, "show, don't tell, show don't tell," so was delighted to see Everyman's earlier comment. Also, the jumps in time, the meta-aspects, what feels like an incomplete picture of the characters... It seems more of a jumble than I expected.

I wonder how much kin Isabel Archer will be with the unfortunate Daisy Miller. Both were young, sought-after, free-spirited, and out of their element. I have to wonder if Isabel will fair better in the clash of cultures. If she will be better understood and appreciated for who she truly is.

[Jeremy]

Renee wrote: "I'm just catching up. I seem to be struggling more with James's style than I expected. I find myself gritting bout the litany, "show, don't tell, show don't tell," so was delighted to see Everyman'..."

For me, reading James is like reading Shakespeare - it takes some time for me to warm up and acclimate to the language.

[Renee]

That's a possibility. I've been reveling in Trollope, Dickens, Hardy, and Wharton these lay few months, so it may be that it's James's style to which I must acclimate. He was so prolific that I hope I eventually do come to appreciate him. There are several books I've had on my tbr.

[Lily]

I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek sarcasm in describing Harriet in this passage, even as the narrator points out she has a nurturing, or at least charitable, heart:

"...Henrietta Stackpole had the advantage of an admired ability; she was thoroughly launched in journalism, and her letters to the Interviewer, from Washington, Newport, the White Mountains and other places, were universally quoted. Isabel pronounced them with confidence 'ephemeral,' but she esteemed the courage, energy and good-humour of the writer, who, without parents and without property, had adopted three of the children of an infirm and widowed sister and was paying their school-bills out of the proceeds of her literary labour. Henrietta was in the van of progress and had clear-cut views on most subjects; her cherished desire had long been to come to Europe and write a series of letters to the Interviewer from the radical point of view—an enterprise the less difficult as she knew perfectly in advance what her opinions would be and to how many objections most European institutions lay open..."

POAL, Chapter VI. Bold added.

We haven't commented on what might be the significance of her last name. Anyone? I'm pretty clueless. I don't know if "stacked" had colloquial connotations in the 1880's?

[Madge UK]

LOL Stacked combined with pole could indeed conjure up a well endowed bluestocking:) I like Henrietta, she is somewhat left wing and a good egg methinks:)

[Lily]

Madge wrote: "LOL Stacked combined with pole could indeed conjure up a well endowed bluestocking:) I like Henrietta, she is somewhat left wing and a good egg methinks:)"

Not an easy friend to have, however, methinks. Especially if with a mind also of one's own, as Isabel has, too.