The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Hello there!
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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