Review: The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This epic story is said to be one of Henry James's best long novels. It is a story of love, foolishness and evil-doing. I could have read on for weeks and weeks; I did not want the tale to end.

Short form: A young American girl is adopted by her wealthy Aunt and brought back to England. She is pretty and she is interesting. Many men fall for her. She'll have none of them. One in particular is a gallant hearted Lord who owns most of England. She turns him down, repeatedly. She believes she is doing the honorable thing because she has a dream of seeing the world and believes that marrying would hinder her exploration.

Her cousin, who also loves her but does so with no hope that this love will ever be returned, sees to it that our heroine (Isabel) has all the money she could ever need so that anything she is able to imagine having or doing - presto. It is done. He made her rich - like Jeff Bezos kind-of rich.

What does Isabel do?

She allows herself to be manipulated into marrying an evil bum. She never realizes her dreams. She is too proper to dump the loser so she lives the rest of her days under his thumb. He only married her for her money.

I think the reader is supposed to be in awe of Isabel for she stuck to her principles. She married who she wanted to marry. Ridiculous. I don't think Henry James wants us to believe that there is something wrong with falling in love with someone who is rich but that is the impression that is left.

Thankfully, Henry James has a magic pen. A breath-taking magic with words. Page after page after page of sentences, each perfectly turned out, each a symphony, a work of art -- he could have directed his story in any old direction. I would have kept reading for the elegance of his writing had me spellbound.

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