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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
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
It definitely could have been shorter though there weren’t as many wasted pages as I’d expect. I would like to have known what happened to pansy because I felt sorry for her she just didn’t know how to say no and stand up for herself.
This book has interesting themes of staying true to yourself, where you come from, and your ideas while still expanding, learning and growing as a person. There was plenty of political discussion. I thought Ralph was honestly the best character, Isabelle was a bit cold.
This book has interesting themes of staying true to yourself, where you come from, and your ideas while still expanding, learning and growing as a person. There was plenty of political discussion. I thought Ralph was honestly the best character, Isabelle was a bit cold.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
Read this in petite fragments for around a month or so and then yesterday read about 250 pages. Probably not the best reading method for this book, but what are you going to do.
Despite the fact that it's in English, I'm really glad that I read this book as an American abroad, as that is one of the dominant themes of the book. It was fascinating to see the way in which James depicts Americans interacting with the European landscape. Some see Europe as an escape from America or as a place to hide their true selves, others as a means for criticism and to hold America up as the embodiment of modernism, and still others (as with the heroine of the novel) as a romantic, physical manifestation of the novels of yore. I still think this is the way in which Europe is seen today in the eyes of Americans, although as I am quickly learning in my time here, 130 years is not that long ago.
If you're into American literature, James is one of the greats, although he verges into a very British-style of writing and of course was not an American citizen at the time of his death. The style of writing can be a bit much at times; paragraphs take up whole pages until suddenly you get to the quick quips of dialogue. I read this in my English class in which I am the only Anglophone and so was made to read it aloud on multiple occasions and it was actually quite difficult with all of the long, complex sentences. Not sure how I could've done it in my second language, and I hope to never come across the Henry James of French literature, whoever that may be...
Despite the fact that it's in English, I'm really glad that I read this book as an American abroad, as that is one of the dominant themes of the book. It was fascinating to see the way in which James depicts Americans interacting with the European landscape. Some see Europe as an escape from America or as a place to hide their true selves, others as a means for criticism and to hold America up as the embodiment of modernism, and still others (as with the heroine of the novel) as a romantic, physical manifestation of the novels of yore. I still think this is the way in which Europe is seen today in the eyes of Americans, although as I am quickly learning in my time here, 130 years is not that long ago.
If you're into American literature, James is one of the greats, although he verges into a very British-style of writing and of course was not an American citizen at the time of his death. The style of writing can be a bit much at times; paragraphs take up whole pages until suddenly you get to the quick quips of dialogue. I read this in my English class in which I am the only Anglophone and so was made to read it aloud on multiple occasions and it was actually quite difficult with all of the long, complex sentences. Not sure how I could've done it in my second language, and I hope to never come across the Henry James of French literature, whoever that may be...
That most unusual of books that caused me to laugh (multiple times), shiver (quite a few), cry (once), and above all to truly believe in the reality of the characters. James possessed a true genius for clever and poignant turns of phrase that somehow fail to rupture the flow of the narrative with their memorability or seem out of place in their speakers mouths. ("the Countess seemed to her to have no soul; she was like a bright rare shell, with a polished surface and a remarkably pink lip, in which something would rattle when you shook it"; "her mind was to be his-- attached to his own like a small garden-plot to a deer-park"; "I haven't many convictions; but I have three or four that I hold strongly. One is that people, on the whole, had better not marry their cousins. Another is that people in an advanced stage of pulmonary disorder had better not marry at all") The way the reader is brought in to Isabel's darkening (or maybe her enlightenment) of the world, is likewise extremely effective, emulating the character's own experiences.. firs the sense of strange unease, then the growing revelation of the causes, finally the mocking affront to all that she felt she had freely chosen.
A tremendous, breath-taking, very real book.
A tremendous, breath-taking, very real book.
Once in a while, a novel comes along that's meant to be in your life. This is one of mine.
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced