The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady is one
of Henry James' most famous works. After reading it myself, I have to
say it deserves this fame 100%. First serialised in 1881, it is
generally regarded as a realist novel.
The story introduces us to a set of
various interesting and very different characters. The heroine, or
the Lady, is Isabel
Archer, who, after her father's death, is taken to England by her
eccentric aunt Mrs Touchett. As the title suggest, the novel
basically (if one can actually use the term 'basically' in relation
to James) attempts to create a portrait of Isabel's live. And oh does
it succeed.
So, the outset of the book shows us
Isabel newly landed in England, surrounded by her sickly cousin Ralph
Touchett, his father Mr. Touchett, the friendly Lord Warburton and of
course her aunt. Isabel immediately captivates the attention of all
those around her, as she is very different from the usual women of
England's upper society. She is overly fond of her independence and
freedom, full of a curiosity to observe the world. Accordingly, when
her elderly uncle passes away and she is left with a staggering
inheritance, Ralph and the reader have high expectations for the
woman who has at that point already declined a very prodigious offer.
This shall be all I am going to tell
you about the plot, I don't want to spoil the fun after all! Other
characters we meet are the insufferable suitor Caspar Goodwood from
America, Isabel's closest friend, the journalist Henrietta Stackpole,
the intriguing Madame Merle and her friend Mr Osmond. And this is the
first point I loved about this book: the characters. James' novels
usually feature a wide pallet of characters with different
nationalities, with the Europeans contrasting the Americans. The same
goes for The Portrait.
Every character is intricately fleshed out, everyone has a story of
his or her own and Isabel is where they all come together. I love
character driven stories, and this is definitely one of them. The
first half of the novel could be said to be moving rather slowly, but
this helps the reader to really get to know all the players as many
facetted human beings (well, maybe not Caspar Goodwood, he is just a
lovelorn fool). Once the second half is reached, the pacing of the
plot picks up to match the drama of Isabel's live, and it was really
hard to put the book down for the last 300 pages or so.
This is really not a book to read if
you are looking for simple entertainment. James touches upon many
different topics with The Portrait,
and one must be very observant to really get everything out of it. We
have, of course, the gender depiction. The question of what Isabel,
an independent American in Europe, does with her ultimate freedom and
the way her story ends (or rather doesn't end), leaves a lot of room
for interpretation. How can matrimony and independence be combined,
if at all? The question of happy marriages is also discussed, but
rather indirectly. A closer look at all the relationships depicted
gives one the impression that it takes a great deal of luck to attain
any form of wedded bliss at all. Duty is another central theme of the
book and it was fascinating to read about how each character dealt
with his or her duty towards family, friends, society or just
themsevles. Madame Merle's side story especially sticks out on this
point.
All in all, as you may be able to
tell from this review, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has been
several weeks since I finished it, and Isabel's story still pops into
my head once a day at least. I can recommend this to fans of Daphne
du Maurier's Rebecca
or maybe even Wuthering Heights by
Emily Brontë.
At least the feelings these books convey and the eery way in which
they stick with the reader are rather similar. The Portrait
of a Lady also goes very well
with James' Daisy Miller,
since the latter is often considered as the precursor of the
full-fledged portrait. One last warning though: don't go to James
expecting any kind of closure. You won't get it, it's hard to accept,
I know, but when you accept this fact you'll see that there could
have been no other ending (I'm still not over it though).
Thanks for reading and please feel
free to share your reading experience below!
Some extra information for the fellow interested bibliophiles out there:
I read the book in this lovely Penguin Clothbound Edition
It is not only stunning, it also offers loads of useful extra material, like comparison of the different editions James published in his lifetime, notes, even a short passage from the author's diary shedding some light on what his thoughts were while writing this masterpiece.
The only flaw these editions have is that the pattern on the cover wears off a bit while reading, but in this case it was really only a little bit.
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