(The exceptions: Isabel’s two wealthy, handsome suitors, Warburton and Goodwood, are less than believable, and remind me of eager (or horny?) dogs, their tails wagging whenever they’re around their love/lust object.) We partly read fiction to learn about other people’s lives, right? Well, James does that. Sometimes the effect can be claustrophobic – get me out of this person’s head! – but more often it’s utterly compelling and convincing. The Prose and Psychological Complexityĭamn, James knew how to write long, luxuriant sentences that dig deep into his characters’ minds. What does she want: Freedom? The ability to choose, even if it’s a bad choice? Is she a projection of James’s latent homosexuality? Is she a feminist or not? There are no simple answers.Ģ. She’s utterly fascinating, and if I were back in university, I imagine having long conversations and arguments about her character. Beautiful, young, headstrong and spirited, the American woman visits her wealthy relatives in England, rejects marriage proposals by two worthy suitors, inherits a fortune and then is manipulated into marrying one of the most odious creatures on the planet, Gilbert Osmond. His theatrical work is thought to have profoundly influenced his later novels and tales.ġ0 Things I Love About Henry James’s The Portrait Of A Lady An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel writing, biography, autobiography, and criticism,and wrote plays, some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to realistic fiction, and foreshadowed the modernist work of the twentieth century. James insisted that writers in Great Britain and America should be allowed the greatest freedom possible in presenting their view of the world, as French authors were. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.

His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. Henry James, OM (1843-1916), son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author, one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction.

The portrait of a lady by henry james