Customer Reviews

The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Isabel Archer, a bright and independent young American, makes her first trip to Europe in the company of her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, who lives outside of London in a 400-year-old estate, she discovers a totally different world, one which does not encourage her independent thinking or behavior and which is governed by rigid social codes. This contrast between American and European values, vividly dramatized here, is a consistent theme in James's novels, one based on his own experiences living in the US and England. In prose that is filled with rich observations about places, customs, and attitudes, James portrays Isabel's European coming-of-age, as she discovers that she must curb her intellect and independence if she is to fit into the social scheme in which she now finds herself.

Isabel Archer, one of James's most fully drawn characters, has postponed a marriage in America for a year of travel abroad, only to discover upon her precipitate and ill-considered marriage to an American living in Florence, that it is her need to be independent that makes her marriage a disaster. Gilbert Osmond, an American art collector living in Florence, marries Isabel for the fortune she has inherited from her uncle, treating her like an object d'art which he expects to remain "on the shelf." Madame Serena Merle, his long-time lover, is, like Osmond, an American whose venality and lack of scruples have been encouraged, if not developed, by the European milieu in which they live.

James packs more information into one paragraph than many writers do in an entire chapter. Distanced and formal, he presents psychologically realistic characters whose behavior is a direct outgrowth of their upbringing, with their conflicts resulting from the differences between their expectations and the reality of their changed settings. The subordinate characters, Ralph Touchett, Pansy Osmond, her suitor Edward Rosier, American journalist Henrietta Stackpole, Isabel's former suitor Caspar Stackpole, and Lord Warburton, whose love of Isabel leads him to court Pansy, are as fascinating psychologically and as much a product of their own upbringing as is Isabel.

As the setting moves from America to England, Paris, Florence, and Rome, James develops his themes, and as Isabel's life becomes more complex, her increasingly difficult and emotionally affecting choices about her life make her increasingly fascinating to the reader. James's trenchant observations about the relationship between individuals and society and about the effects of one's setting on one's behavior are enhanced by the elegance and density of his prose, making this a novel one must read slowly--and savor. Mary Whipple

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James sketches the account of life and times of most memorable heroine Isabel Archer. Isabel leaves US and arrives in England with her Aunt. Her cousin, Ralph, who ails from tuberculosis takes active interest in her, and Henry James creates highly realistic and entertaining conversations, which shed light into the character and thoughts of both these characters and the uncle and the aunt. The story gets interesting with presence of two suitors, each highly successful in their respective country (US and UK). The dying uncle leaves his neice a fortune, and she finds herself independent enough to pursue her whims and life.

Her marriage to Gilbert Osmond, the events that lead to it and how Isabel comes of age is the reason why Portrait of a Lady is a must read novel for every person. After denying two apt and deserving suitors, Isabel ventures to make a tragic choice and the intricate interplay of her perception or rather lack of it with the circumstances and events makes novel a masterpiece. The strains between the Old Europe and New America, the idiosyncracies associated with each come to fore, both through Isabel's life and through that of her journalist friend's, Henrietta Stackpole's.

Be it plain Pansy, the perfectionist Madame Merle, the cold and practical Aunt, the socialite Countess Gemini, each woman, like Isabel, is portrayed in sufficent detail. The two suitors engage as character studies, while the cousin Ralph is the character that shall stay with me forever. Admirable even in adverse circumstances, he is for me besides Isabel, the greatest creation of Henry James.

The story could have become melodramatic, but that is highly understated. The dialogues could have filled it to make it like screenplay, but James supplies nice descriptions of both the physical world and that of what goes in Isabel's heart to make it substantial. The commentaries on love and marriage that are subtly built into the novel, and the picture of both US and Europe seem quite contemporary. For a novel written in 1881, it shows how acute the observations of the author were, as well as the fact that we, humans, live life with similar choices, mistakes and feelings irrespective of the age. The novel has enough element of suspense, and events unfold in unexpected ways, making each discovery a pleasant or unpleasant surprise.

Having read many bleak American novels, this Henry James novel allows one to see how a Jane Austen type entertainer can be generated with sufficient origanility by a masterful writer. I am spellbound by the analogies in many of the most memorable actresses, espicially in how they make their choices between men.

Four excerpts from novel shows one the essence of the book:

"Justice to a lovely being is after all a florid sort of sentiment."


"She had had a more wondrous vision of him, fed though charmed senses and oh such stirred fancy!- she had not read him right. A certain combination of features had touched her, and in them she had seen most striking of figures. That he was poor and lonely and yet that somehow he was noble- that was what had interested her and seemed to give her her opportunity. There had been an undefinable beauty about him - in his situation, in his mind, in his face. She had felt the same time that he was helpless and ineffectual, but the feeling had taken a form of tenderness which was very flower of respect."

"It was not till the first year of their life together, so admirably intimate at first, had closed she had taken the alarm. Then the shadows had begun to gather; it was as if Osmond delibrately, almost malignantly, had put the lights out one by one."

"How could anything be a pleasure to a woman who knew that she had thrown away her life?"

Isabel Archer --the unforgettable protagonist of Henry James' "The Portrait of a Lady" -- says at some point that she doesn't want to begin life by marrying, and she attests there other things a woman can do. This declaration is the heart of the matter of this amazingly well executed and brilliant book. Naïve as she is, Isabel believes that in the 19th Century she would be able to enjoy her life and meet the world before getting married -- and not marrying is still a possibility.

With Isabel's dilemma American writer Henry James deals with the conflict between society and individual longings. Many writers have dealt this issue -- but only a few succeeded with such grace and competence as this author. The point is that Isabel is not the only one dealing with this problem. As a matter of fact, all characters of this novel, at some point in their life have to face the society against their personal wishes.

James was a master of psychological development. Not a single character in this novel is unrealistic. The cast of supporting characters is as deep as Isabel. With his talent, the writer explores the psychological conflict is a result of the society pressures against the characters beliefs -- and not a gratuitous philosophy like many writers usually do. The depth brings another pleasure in the reading of the novel.

Language is usually the main barrier for contemporary readers, when it comes to classic novels. With James it is a problem that can be easily overcome. His use of language however sophisticated is not difficult. His choice of words and structures are conscious and beautiful. The first chapters tend to be read slowly, but once the readers get the hang of James' prose, reading becomes an undeniable pleasure.

At the same time the writer explore the psychological side of his characters; he never neglects their social conflict. In the last part of the novel, for instance, James explores the results of Isabel choices relating them to her identity -- and how one affected another. At the same time, James makes a curious choice: we never see the main events in Isabel's life, they are told to the reader after they happen. This use of ellipses happen usually when the heroine chooses to value social costume over her independence.

As in most Henry James novels, he doesn't neglect the major conflict of this period of his work: Americans and Europeans. This time round the novel explore many American people living in Europe -- most characters are US born. If on the one hand, they represent the innocence, individualism and capability; the Europeans, on the other, are the sophistication, social convention and the decadence. But with so many Americans living in Europe how can one set the limits?

Isabel moves from America to England and, then, to continental Europe. At each stage she loses her independency, and she realizes she cannot control her life the way she thought she could. And she realizes that there aren't many things a woman of her time could do before marrying.

In THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Henry James continues his fascination with taking Americans out of their vulgar and moneyed new world environment and placing them in a stuffy but cultured old world, a comparison of which sometimes leads the reader to think that James himself sometimes could not prefer one over the other. In this novel, the transplanted American is wealthy heiress Isabel Archer, a woman who early on is depicted as determined to see the world and experience its myriad flavors. The problem with this is that Isabel is both attracted to and repelled by those exotic flavors. She is described in terms that emphasize her virginity and general innocence of soul. When Isabel arrives in England she encounters three suitors, with each one representing one aspect of that which either entices her or annoys her.

The first suitor is Caspar Goodwood, an American who is described as wealthy, handsome, virile, and decent. He would indeed be a fine husband for Isabel, but for one factor. James often depicts Goodwood's appearance in terms that accentuate his virility. Whenever they embrace, James (perhaps leeringly) narrates that Isabel felt his male hardness press in. Goodwood simply cannot touch Isabel without that concommitant reaction which drives Isabel away.

The second suitor is Lord Warburton, a wealthy and titled Englishman who also proposes to Isabel. He is simply full of positive qualities that most women would find flattering, but for one which is hardly his fault. Isabel assumes that if they marry, she would simply merge into the unnoticed background that forms the ongoing basis of the life of the wife of a titled lord. So she rejects him as well.

The third suitor is Gilbert Osmond, an older American expatriate who charms Isabel into accepting his proposal, despite the many objections of every one of her social circle who complained that in every way Osmond was all the wrong man. So why did she choose him? To begin with, her acceptance was no hasty affair. She had known Osmond for years before marrying him. Since he was considerably older than she, she blithely assumed that he would not make the sexual demands that a younger Goodwood might make nor would he be likely to infringe on her personal freedoms of choice when it comes to travel, friends, or life style considerations. Further, Isabel's good friend, Madam Merle, is the only one who praises Osmond and is thus instrumental in assuring her acceptance.

After Isabel's marriage predictably begins to unravel, James uses irony to point out that even well-considered choices may go sour if one ignores the hard facts of reality. We find out that Madam Merle had had a child with Osmond and a match with a wealthy woman would ensure the support of that child. Further, when Isabel rejects the first two suitors she correctly had sized up her initial rejections but in hindsight, those qualities that she saw as fearful were only mildly so, and easily corrected. When Isabel accepts Osmond using her rationale that he would not restrict her life choices, she is woefully wrong. The climax of the novel occurs when, after a few years of marriage, she discovers that her ill cousin Ralph Touchett is dying and wishes to see her. Touchett earlier had given Isabel a vast fortune to make an already wealthy woman even more so, and now when she tells Osmond that she wishes to travel to be by Ralph's side at the end, Osmond proves to be the very quintessence of a Jamesian villain, one who asks for all but gives nothing in return. He refuses her permission by stating: "I think we should accept the consequences of our actions."

The ending of THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY is ambiguous. We do not know if Isabel will remain with Osmond. All that we know for sure is the ironic veracity of Osmond's closing words. Isabel has made her choices; now is the time to decide whether to honor their eminently foreseeable consequences. In PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Henry James says this as well as anyone else has.

Just finished this masterpiece. Must admit that I feel like I have performed the literary equivalent of running a half-marathon (Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, in French Original, will be the full marathon). Was it worth my time? Absolutely. First, let it be said that one need not feel too bad about not reading all classics all the time (after all, what is modern literature there for?). Large parts of the non-contemporary plot are simply not applicable to our present-day situations, needs and moods, and however beautifully nineteenth-century mannerism may be depicted, the protagonists' issues often do not remotely reflect our own, which, at least for this reviewer, is one of the main attractions of "Lady"- titled books. Throughout the good first half of this oeuvre I could not unreservedly ascribe to the affectionate portrait Henry James was painting of this young lady Isabel Archer, in spite of some physical description and more dialogue. Apart from the (sad? lucky? progressive?) fact that most people I know have trouble grasping the day-to-day grind of the leisure class, with their seemingly life-filling partying and globetrotting backed by an armada of servants, it was exactly the repeated emphasis of "our heroine's" independence, her infallible quick-wittedness, and her holier-than-thou attitude that placed her in further distance, because I found her social graces hard to relate to. Whirlwind romances, quickie-marriages and lovesick suitors are certainly no foreign subjects today, particularly in southern California, it is just the way those perfect gentlemen fall head-over-heels for girls they just barely met (and never unaccompanied, mind you), how they woo them, the absoluteness of it all, that elicits more sympathetic smiles than affirmative nods when read now. It is sad that Isabel's refusal of two excellent marriage proposals - in terms of financial security - seems so unrealistically romantic in our money-crazed world, just like her cousin's otherworldy altruistic motives for persuading his father to bequest to Isabel and immense amount of money just because she is a good girl.

But this is, after all, romance in the sense of a novel, and it is where the genius of great novelists like James comes in. From this not-quite-yet happy ending on things begin to take a slow but steady darker yet more identifiable turn, until plot twists and the open-ended conclusion of the book lend sense to many events, including the ones described above.

The painstaking description of Isabel's marital discords, her husband's eloquent cynicism juxtaposed to her pointed brevity, her growing melancholy and sensation of suffocation in the midst of preserving appearances for society's sake is nothing short of brilliant. The vanishing of Isabel's independence is present on the reader's mind as much as on Isabel's, and I found myself rooting for her to regain it. On a reconciliatory note to the previously expressed criticism about the too-perfect dialogue-Isabel's friends' and particularly her grumpy aunt's aphorisms were a delight to read, even if they sound more like a script for "what I should have said but didn't think of in time". But, again, this is why they are called classics: You don't necessarily have to live in the time to appreciate the meaning; the message lives on. Isabel's loyal friend Henrietta personifies the quintessential modern American girl, as James sees her, more bluntly than Isabel. It is presumably through Henrietta's gainful employment, her long-lasting singlehood and her criticism of many things traditional, like servitude, that James expresses an expatriate's affection for the USA (though this country had its own fair share of "domestics" issues). All in all an occasionally chewy but rewarding read!

The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, tells an intricate tale of lust, greed, revenge and corruption. It is a timeless story dealing with the clashes of cultures and the timeless struggle for individuality and independence. Isabel, the main character within this anecdote, is thrown into a world where everything she thought she knew is false. As she explores her new world in England and Italy, she learns about misrepresentation of the European culture in America and American culture in Europe. Her trust in people disintegrates as she is betrayed by a person she has trusted and confided in. She learns the true meaning of love through the understanding and acceptance of hate. "She was morally certain now that this feeling of hatred, which at first had been a refuge and a refreshment, had become the occupation and comfort of his life." (413) To love this book, is to love conflict and all of the intrigues that are parallel to it. For me, it is the deception and plots within Isabel's life that captured my interest. For other people it might be her struggle for independence, or her search for a self indentity. While the book begins slowly, it ends with a rapid succession of events, each being an important piece of the final portrait of a young lady from the United States.

I started reading this book with a lot of trepidation--once upon a time, you see, I'd tried to read The Ambassadors. It only took me two days to read the first page, having spent most of the time wandering from stupefying clause to clause (Like EM Forester said of James, he wrote more and more about less and less). Portrait of Lady was much easier to read. I was charmed with James' opening description of a sunlit lawn in the afternoon, and by Ralph Touchett and his father. But as for infamous Isabel Archer? Well: All through the book, one character or another is constantly pronouncing how marvelous and wonderful Isabel Archer is. They're going to watch her career (Ralph) or rescue her from America (Mrs. Touchett) or keep her on the straight and narrow (Henrietta Stackpole). You would think, wouldn't you, that a person worth this much energy must be truly extraordinary. Well Isabel Archer isn't. She's a bit of an earnest bore, really, and after a while I got sick of the other characters--all of whom, by the way, were themselves very interesting--telling Isable how special she was. I can't believe that these Europeans, who seemed to have so much going on, would be drawn to this bland Rice Krispie of a woman. At first I thought that maybe James was pulling a Kate Chopin and trying to make Isabel a proto-feminist, a la "The Awakening". I was wrong. Aside from refusing Lord Warburton's hand in marriage, the only way she demonstrates her freedom is by making stupid decisions. If James had perhaps not emphasized how special Isabel was supposed to be, and instead simply charted her absorption into a society very different from America's, I would give this book 5 stars. Something I didn't expect: James's wonderfully sly sense of humor. For someone renowned for avoiding morality plays, he certainly enjoys rolling his eyes at his characters' foibles.

I vaguely remember encountering Henry James in an American Literature course when I was in high school. At the time, I recalled the short stories by James as long-winded and I wearied of the descriptions of meaningful looks and various brocades and expansive gardens. I returned to Henry James and chose Portrait of a Lady based on an online review I read. I was instantly absorbed in the tale and those once exhausting passages only pulled me in further into the time period. I would also like to recommend the Nichole Kidman film as a companion -- it stays remarkably close to the story. Brew some tea and then indulge in the captivating tale of an independent woman and the society that represses her spirit.

Henry James published THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY in 1881 with an aspiration to scale new literary height that would surmount DAISY MILLER. THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY dawns on his perception of betrayal. In this extremely poignant novel, James toys with the paradoxical idea that one can come to the full possession of his power only to realize that he really has no way out once he has lived long enough to achieve the goal. James's purpose of the novel is to show his heroine, Isabel Archer, confronting her destiny. When her aunt appears at the house and brings her to England, Isabel is in a situation to value any change that will rid her past.

She is clever but not bookish; she has an immense curiosity about life and is constantly staring and wondering. Her presence at the Touchetts' residence in Gardencourt dictates an irresistible air of independence that is conducive to her strong but undemonstrative condition to control her fate. She is very fond of her liberty, as she has stated peremptorily from the very beginning, almost like an omen of her fate.

The story of Isabel Archer is straightforward and nothing as complicated and melodramatic as that of the people surrounding her. The peripheral figures who supply the momentum of the plot also support the entire scaffold of the novel. Happenings of these peripheral figures construct Isabel's story. The importunate suitors whom she rejects constantly hover around her and create an effect that accentuates the assumption of a simplicity about her, whereas those who are to launch her on her destiny are relatively opaque and obscure. She is like an ideal entity that ambitiously but somewhat naively embodies a nobleness of imagination. She maintains an infinite hope that she should never do anything wrong.

Her cousin Ralph Touchett almost plays the conscience of the novel as he gives up half of his inheritance to make her rich: Isabel is rendered independent in pursuing her exploration and enlightenment in life and is not put at the expense of anyone. He confronts her being obdurate in exploring something unknown and cajoles her that such persistence will only reap utter disappointment. But fate intervenes the stubborn mind in the shape of Ralph's friend, Lord Warburton, whose magnanimous offer she refuses at the revelation of her steel proof independence.

Knowing his cousin's impregnable resolve to meet her destiny, Ralph wishes to make her rich and keeps her from marrying for money. He hopes he shall live long enough to see what Isabel does with herself, who lives too much in the world of her own dreams and has not enough contact with reality. Ironically her new fortune could have possibly shut her up more and bound her to a man to whose ego she succumbs and for whom she contrives to procure pleasure. His austerity, poverty, and loneliness, which Isabel associates to nobleness, interest her at first but manifest into an egotism that he takes as a personal offense of her having her own mind. In a way, Isabel's attempt to her fate ends up forfeiting it. His virtue implies a sovereign contempt for everyone. He has pointed out to her the baseness and shabbiness of life; he has opened her eyes to the stupidity, the depravity, and the ignorance of mankind. But he cannot tolerate her possession of her own mind.

THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY paints the picture of the unhappiest of a woman whose fruit of life-long solitary experience turns out to be discernment of her short-coming. Her enlightenment is as hopeful an outcome as her poignant marriage: she must not lose all her life simply because she has lost a part. In her lonely search with an inquiring spirit, she finds herself always at the mercy of others less scrupulous than herself and those who confront her own simplicity and naiveté.

Heny James demonstrated his splendid gifts for providing both mesmerizing dialogue and an elegant tale which still resonates today in his "The Portrait of a Lady". Young Isabel Archer, determined to visit Europe after a failed romance back in the United States, gets her wish in the company of her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, as they travel from England to Italy. James offers a beguiling character study in Isabel Archer - perhaps his most satisfying literary creation - describing through her words and actions how she tries to resolve the demands imposed upon her by Victorian society - primarily the necessity for her to marry - with her keen desire to see the cultural riches of Europe. But her paths cross with that of an older widower, Gilbert Osmond, with whom she finds at first some romantic solace and hope, not realizing that he is not the charismatic friend and lover which he appears to be. James's brilliant literary tour-de-force is an elegant study of the social mores of both wealthy Americans and English during the 1870s. If I'm not mistaken, this edition is based on James's revised 1908 edition, in which he emphasizes the dramatic qualities of Archer's relationships with those in her circle, especially with her aunt, and of course, Gilbert Osmond.