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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
La storia narrata si svolge lungo l'arco di sei anni, più o meno dal 1872 al 1880, e secondo me Henry James riesce veramente a catturare col suo stile di scrittura il lento scorrere del tempo. Queste 700 pagine si leggono volentieri,anche grazie alla vivacità della scrittura di James; gli eventi del romanzo sono intervallati da lunghe introspezioni psicologiche, da qualche commento ironico da parte dell'autore che contribuiscono alla scorrevolezza della storia. I personaggi sono ben caratterizzati e complessi. Personalmente, molti li ho trovati antipatici ma comunque ben costruiti. L'unica cosa che mi ha veramente deluso è stato il finale. Avrei preferito qualcosa di diverso.
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was infuriatingly mediocre. I wanted this to be a masterwork of realism in the vein of Middlemarch and instead what I ended up reading was 600 pages of occasionally compelling characters, fleetingly engaging plot, and a lack of empathy.
When I read Middlemarch and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which were the two books I found myself thinking about the most when reading this one, I cared deeply about the protagonists even when they were flawed and I understood the antagonists even if I hated them. In The Portrait of Lady, I wanted to connect to Isabel especially so much more than I did; I wanted to be invested in her bad decisions and the consequences of them, but I wasn't. I was frustrated with her or I didn't understand her motivations or both. So often, we're not even exposed to Isabel's thoughts or feelings about what's happening in the book directly; instead, we're treated to other peoples' thoughts and feelings about her, and those other people are very often men.
There are some really beautiful passages in here, and some really compelling moments of character interaction. Ralph and Isabel's conversationthe night before Ralph died was stunning; Isabel and Madame Merle's conversation in the convent after Isabel has learned that Madame Merle is Pansy's mother was delicate and prickly and full of depth. Madame Merle and Osmond's conversation in the flashback section right before the end of book was incredibly compelling and did so much work to illuminate why Madame Merle did what she did, and it made me wish we got that same kind of nuanced understanding of Isabel. Isabel's decisions feel incomprehensible even as they were being justified. When she returns to Rome at the novel's end even though she has the opportunity to stay in London with the justification that she made a promise to Osmond , I actually yelled "what?!" out loud. I wanted the kind of ending for her that Helen gets in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and the fact that this book is about the realities and the horrors of marriage didn't feel like an adequately satisfactory reason for not getting it. Osmond himself wasn't even remotely as compelling a villain as Arthur Huntingdon, the abusive husband figure in Tenant, and when he was being cold and cruel, it fell strangely flat.
Ultimately, I walked away from this book feeling like I'd just read an entire novel whose primary message, intentionally or not, was "if you give women freedom and money, they'll make bad decisions, and they'll double down on their bad choices when men try to save them." It was alienating and it was infuriating. I understand that James's idea when writing this book was exploring the way that someone who is pure can be torn apart by the realities of the world and "ground in the very mill of the conventional," but reading it through a 21st century lens felt like reading a portrait of a woman written by a man who didn't think all that highly of women. Ralph Touchett, who was the most interesting character in this book to me, spent so much time passing judgement on Isabel's decisions in an oddly patronizing way, and Caspar Goodwood was so patronizing I wanted to launch him into the sun half the time he was on the page; the book felt like it was judging Isabel for her decisions without acknowledging the social factors that might have pushed her to make those decisions or really exploring in a thoughtful way why she made them, and it made for a frustratingly unsatisfying read.
(Also, on a much less important note: I kept having to check throughout this book what city we were in at any given time. I wanted the different settings in this book, from Rome to London to Florence, to have more character and more specificity and more atmosphere.)
When I read Middlemarch and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which were the two books I found myself thinking about the most when reading this one, I cared deeply about the protagonists even when they were flawed and I understood the antagonists even if I hated them. In The Portrait of Lady, I wanted to connect to Isabel especially so much more than I did; I wanted to be invested in her bad decisions and the consequences of them, but I wasn't. I was frustrated with her or I didn't understand her motivations or both. So often, we're not even exposed to Isabel's thoughts or feelings about what's happening in the book directly; instead, we're treated to other peoples' thoughts and feelings about her, and those other people are very often men.
There are some really beautiful passages in here, and some really compelling moments of character interaction. Ralph and Isabel's conversation
Ultimately, I walked away from this book feeling like I'd just read an entire novel whose primary message, intentionally or not, was "if you give women freedom and money, they'll make bad decisions, and they'll double down on their bad choices when men try to save them." It was alienating and it was infuriating. I understand that James's idea when writing this book was exploring the way that someone who is pure can be torn apart by the realities of the world and "ground in the very mill of the conventional," but reading it through a 21st century lens felt like reading a portrait of a woman written by a man who didn't think all that highly of women. Ralph Touchett, who was the most interesting character in this book to me, spent so much time passing judgement on Isabel's decisions in an oddly patronizing way, and Caspar Goodwood was so patronizing I wanted to launch him into the sun half the time he was on the page; the book felt like it was judging Isabel for her decisions without acknowledging the social factors that might have pushed her to make those decisions or really exploring in a thoughtful way why she made them, and it made for a frustratingly unsatisfying read.
(Also, on a much less important note: I kept having to check throughout this book what city we were in at any given time. I wanted the different settings in this book, from Rome to London to Florence, to have more character and more specificity and more atmosphere.)
Just to live the rest of your life with Isabel Archer is good enough reason to keep this book around, though the other characters are often comedic gems. Henrietta Stackpole and Caspar Goodwood are some of my new favorite characters of the 'deliberately and unabashedly American' persuasion.
Man claims 'there is really too much to say', proceeds to demonstrate most painfully.
One of James's most celebrated novels, and I'd have to agree that it is a fine work of literature. James takes on the consciousness of Isabel Archer and explores the experience of a woman who desires her independence in a world, or a society rather, that would rather her be chained down. And while James does take his time in setting everything up (i.e. introducing a lot of characters that may, at first, seem like too much), it's clearly done with purpose. At first it seems like nothing will tear Isabel apart from her independence, she even turns down two marriage proposals in the name of liberty, but she eventually succumbs in the name of love (though it's to be noted that her romance and traveling around the world are glossed over, which is rather curious, but I suppose that that is not what James wanted to capture here). Of course her marriage dissolves and is far from what she had hoped it would be, as her husband, Gilbert Husband, wishes her to have no freedom. As the novel unfolds, character motivations become clear, and it's perhaps what makes the novel even more interesting. The novel as a whole might be dense, but there are many thoughtful and beautiful passages to be found as a result.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Classics just aren't for me and I need to accept it
An interesting perspective on a "modern" woman's choice in relationships, written in the late 19th century. On the one hand, the rebellious central character (having inherited a fortune) chooses to marry a man who fits none of the criteria of her upwardly mobile circle; on the other hand, when she ends up in an unhappy marriage with an overbearing husband, she nonetheless feels compelled to stay in it. Character development isn't up to the standards of current fiction, but the story is well told and well paced.
challenging
emotional
sad
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
I love insufferable people doing insufferable things in the likewise manner, but after piddling with a chapter here and there I read three chapters back to back and the mere thought of having to get to know these characters any further left me so devoid of joy so fast it isn't even funny.