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jerrica 's review for:
The Portrait of a Lady
by Henry James
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...