The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James

First, let me just get this out of the way: I am so, so, SO, SOOOOO glad I’m finally done with this book. Second, now that I’ve fully prepared you for a less than praising review, I urge you to not judge this book based on my poor review. People much smarter than me have praised this book very strongly for a very long time. Third, this is a long book…a very LONG book and I was never good at putting up with those. Fourth, possibly I’m depicting myself as educationally-challenged (if that’s even a term, which just cements the point further, I guess). And, finally, on to the book review!

It’s not that I don’t understand why this book is generally regarded as James’ best novel. Really, I get it, the themes are ripe for discussion: the juxtaposition of American ideals (namely, freedom and individuality) with European standards (sophistication and social convention); the embodiment of these conflicting ideas in the story’s heroine, Isabel Archer; Isabel’s struggles as she is faced with betrayal, deceit, responsibility, and emotional pain. I even learned a new literary technique (you know, for whenever I decide to become a writer…): ellipses. Not, not the “…” that I already use far too frequently. I mean the style of skipping over main events, rather than narrating them, and only referring to them in side conversations after they have happened. It works surprisingly well.

No, I’m afraid my problems with the book are much simpler than disagreeing with the plot, the themes, or the ideology. I was simply bored. The pace of the book induces zombie-reading (you know, reading over a paragraph before realizing you’ve no idea what you just read). And (granted James is a key figure in psychological realism) I think it was too psychological, and a lot of it went over my head. Spark notes helped a lot. In other news, I really am becoming a dunce :(

My attempt at spicing up my posts with some visuals...I'll give Isabel some credit, though...she didn't come off as that stuck up

And, lastly, I disliked Isabel. But I think that only shows that James is excellent at character development because I hated this woman as if I knew her in real life. She thinks about herself obsessively and generally has the highest opinion of herself, regarding her strong beliefs in individuality, freedom, and her moral strength. This is mostly the attitude of the first half of the book and it really does get very annoying. But character development is the major element of this portrait (I had to get that in there) and by the time we reach the second half of the novel, Isabel has undergone some… well, some development. She isn’t radically different from who she was at first, but the events she has undergone have created a conflict within herself, between who she once was and what she has become (between freedom and social convention).

I don’t want to give plot points away, but she really is incredibly stubborn and stupid at times, and even she comes to realize this by the end. So, again, it’s not that the story or the character are badly written, it’s more that James does such a good job of creating this person that I was yelling at her (in my head, of course). And, speaking of the end, this book ends with one of the biggest cliff-hangers of all time. Ok, maybe not that drastic, but it does end very abruptly and indefinitely, meaning you can’t be completely certain what Isabel has decided to do at the end. Critics generally agree on what she did end up doing, but from the text it really can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. It’s not that big a deal, you do still get a sense of completion, but be warned in case you don’t like those kinds of endings. In any case, the point of the ending is to leave the reader with a sour taste.

I probably didn’t give this book a completely fair chance. I mean, I did when I started it, I was expecting it to be a really good book, but it just lost me somewhere along the way, in between Isabel’s self-reflection and the story’s snail pace. I highly doubted whether I would finish it at one point because it was an exercise in overcoming boredom. But, after finishing it (and reading analytical overviews), I see what James did there.

20 down, 32 to go.