Portrait of a LadyPortrait of a Lady
Title rated 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 128 ratings(128 ratings)
Book, 2002
Current format, Book, 2002, , All copies in use.Downloadable Audiobook
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Follows the story of American heiress Isabel as she visits Europe to find her own destiny, is pursued by suitors, and ultimately must make a tragic choice.
One of the great heroines of American literature, Isabel Archer, journeys to Europe in order to, as Henry James writes in his 1908 Preface, &;affront her destiny.&; James began The Portrait of a Lady without a plot or subject, only the slim but provocative notion of a young woman taking control of her fate. The result is a richly imagined study of an American heiress who turns away her suitors in an effort to first establish&;and then protect&;her independence. But Isabel&;s pursuit of spiritual freedom collapses when she meets the captivating Gilbert Osmond. &;James&;s formidable powers of observation, his stance as a kind of bachelor recorder of human doings in which he is not involved,&; writes Hortense Calisher, &;make him a first-class documentarian, joining him to that great body of storytellers who amass what formal history cannot.&;
One of the great heroines of American literature, Isabel Archer, journeys to Europe in order to, as Henry James writes in his 1908 Preface, &;affront her destiny.&; James began The Portrait of a Lady without a plot or subject, only the slim but provocative notion of a young woman taking control of her fate. The result is a richly imagined study of an American heiress who turns away her suitors in an effort to first establish&;and then protect&;her independence. But Isabel&;s pursuit of spiritual freedom collapses when she meets the captivating Gilbert Osmond. &;James&;s formidable powers of observation, his stance as a kind of bachelor recorder of human doings in which he is not involved,&; writes Hortense Calisher, &;make him a first-class documentarian, joining him to that great body of storytellers who amass what formal history cannot.&;
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- New York : Random House ; London : Hi Marketing, 2002.
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