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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I just couldn't read this. I got a few chapters in and couldn't pay attention. I kept getting distracted. I was bored with this book. I usually stick through a book, but this one had to go.
شروع و پایانی بسیار احساسی داشت اما وسطش حوصله زیادی برای ادامه دادن میخواست. همچنین از ایزابل شخصیت اصلی متنفرم :) یکی از رو مخترین شخصیتها توی ادبیات کلاسیک. پایان تلخ و باز و پندهاش کتاب رو ارزشمند میکرد.
I somehow managed to get through seven years of graduate study in literature without ever being forced to read this book. I really wanted to like it, and I wanted to fill in what felt like a big gap in my understanding of the intersection between American and British Literature at the end of the nineteenth century. I had to struggle to get through the whole thing. James seems to delight in convoluted language not for the sake of creating deep, complex characters but for the sake of hearing himself spin sophisticated sentences. His style, while aspiring to elegance, is pretentious and often vacuous. Worse yet, the style keeps both writer and reader from making any sense of the actions and motives of the main character: why she doesn't marry at first, why she marries later, and why she clings to an unhappy marriage remain a mystery to the reader and, I suspect, to the writer also.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ahhhh, torn. It could be tedious, but I was engaged in the story. It tried at times to be a commentary on women and society but the women were most likely to be duplicitous in the story. It addressed choices shaping one's life and the fact that you do have choices, and in that sense I liked it, but it oversimplified choices, and seemed to indicate there was no change possible once a choice was made.
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've tried multiple times to read this book in physical form and each time had to abandon my reading because the text is so dense. However, listening to it on Audiobook, the story unfolded and I was delighted with the wit and character development and I was able to finish in just a few days time. It makes me want to try some other works by Henry James, who I already appreciate because of his devotion to and support of Edith Wharton.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh wow. Wow. Ok. This will need a re-read one day. That was a lot.
You can criticize James for a lot of things, especially for those long winded walls of text he's so famous for, but the man was a master at writing three dimensional characters.
I cried.
You can criticize James for a lot of things, especially for those long winded walls of text he's so famous for, but the man was a master at writing three dimensional characters.
I cried.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Perhaps the worst book I’ve ever read. James neither understands nor cares anything for women, making this book a painful slog.