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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
After must pestering and persistence I have finished and now know what happened. Best drawn James character ever.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
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:
Complicated
Capital-C "Classics" have always challenged me so I opted for the audiobook of The Portrait of a Lady. I found the language much more humorous and less stuffy than I expected (though the characters themselves were quite stuffy indeed). I read this on recommendation of the 'twist' at the end, which I didn't exactly guess but wasn't a shock either.
emotional
reflective
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
Beautifully written, insightful character development, a wonderful elliptical style. It's Isabel's story, from age 19 to 25, as she leaves Albany, NY, ten years after the Civil War, and is taken by her long lost aunt to England. Having left the land of enterprise and hope she then travels to Paris, Florence and then Rome (a downward spiral to the decadence of the old Europe) in quest for the life of an independent woman. The men in her life are symbols of different kinds of masculinity but her interactions with them and with the women in the story give the reader a very complex, nuanced, fully developed portrait of a lady.
If only modern books told us so much about people!
If only modern books told us so much about people!
Well... What can I say? First, I acknowledge the skill of Henry James as a writer. I think it’s fair to call him one of the greats. He is a master portrait painter in his writing: scenic, but leaving much of the interpretation to the reader. That said, his subject world I find tedious and even boring, as well as very predictable. You read one Victorian novel, you’ve read them all. The tragic reality of life for aristocratic women during this period is well-trod ground. But one can’t help but feel there was much more agency available to such women than is often portrayed. And this makes Isabel Archer’s seemingly hopeless and conscribed reality seem silly. Just walk away, dammit! It can’t be that hard! And the salon intrigue seems so petty. But it is what it is. One thing I can’t quite gather is what about Osmond made Isabel come to despise and hate him that she didn’t know before she hitched her wagon to the dude? Madame Merle was more of a tragic figure than Isabel. What drove Madame Merle to be so deceptive and manipulative was born of an oppression that I thought made her an empathetic character in the end. And, really, they guys were all kinda both jerkish and impotent at the same time. Anyway, I acknowledge the exceptional quality of Henry James in the craft of writing, but I’m not a big fan of the genre and the subjects he writes about.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not my cup of tea. I realize that as a well-read literate person I'm supposed to say this is a work of genius, but I don't get the stream of consciousness thing at all. I felt nothing when I read this as a teenager, and feel nothing now when I read it as an adult. But I'm compelled to keep reading it, because I think there may be something I have yet to decipher. Perhaps therein lies the genius of James?
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes