Special Book-of-the-Month Club Limited Edition - The Portrait of a Lady

The author put lots of thinking on how the people in that period lived. He described people's thought processes vividly. The turn of the story was unexpected at the first thought. Then one would realize that it was in human nature to develop that way.

Haunting, marvelous, wonderful. One one the best books ever written.
The use of the English language, the details, the innuendos, the subtlety, is extraordinary.
If I were male I would marry Miss Archer.

Just realized my copy is missing 140+ pages towards the end; so beware of this version. the store, of course, is refunding without any questions. I will delete this review in time, but people do need to be aware.

On the other hand, I like the story fine.

The Portrait of a Lady -- James's sensitivity to nuances of thought and feeling, his construction of life and sensibilities of American privileged class in Europe at turn of the 20th c. and almost architectural sentence construction all make for unique and elegant writing and reading

This was the summer classic for my book group. I can't wait to discuss with my group all of the issues related to women (and men) that come up when reading the book. Written in the 1800 style, it is not an easy read, but worth the effort required to finish it.

This series had so much potential, but never quite made it. You go through years of this woman's life waiting for things to get better for her, and they never do, despite the fact that over and over again loving friends and family keep warning her and giving her ways out of her situations. Instead you're dragged through her drama, with no reason to even care if things get better for her as she keeps making safe, but dumb and boring decisions, sinking further and further into quiet misery. I wish someone had told me this before, so I wouldn't have wasted my time going through the whole series.

A classic by a genius. No American understood Europe better. In this one he adds the twist of Europeanized Americans absorbing the centuries-old European ennui and cynicism that still freaks out Red State Americans to this very day.

Henry James explores his main characters with a depth not often seen in literature. The flow of language took longer to understand, since this piece was not written recently, but it was still coherent when given proper attention. Following the heroin, Isabel Archer, through periods of great change in her life, the story comes to a finish with an ending which should satisfy any reader. Definitely worth taking the time to read.

Great novel, but typos in a Norton edition? That's disappointing and very atypical of their attention to detail. Vol. I: IV, p. 39, "Mr. Touchett's visit" should be Mrs. Touchett's visit. Small mistake, but again expect more from a Norton edition.

This is a painfully slow read, which is likely due to the fact that it was originally written as a serial for a magazine. I found it great for helping me fall asleep. It picked up at 90%, but then had such an unrewarding ending.

This is a review of the unabridged audio cassettes. It would have been nice if the the store description had mentioned that these cassettes will not play on a Walkman or other audio player without a special adapter (and the adapter only works with headphones). I have listened to many books on tape but this is the first one that has required an adapter; I have no idea where to purchase the adapter (which appears to be specific to the publisher) and I am not thrilled about doing that to listen to one book, anyway. The tapes will play on a full stereo system with some adjustments, but you have to be able to switch the stereo completely to the left, which results in a really annoying sound.

This is the story of a brilliant , charming and beautiful young woman who thinks she knows everything and is sadly mistaken. She is like so many young women who think they have all the answers and make bad choices in men.

I realize I'm treading on sacred ground here, but I couldn't get beyond the first half of the first volume of this novel. Henry James is an eloquent wordsmith but he writes as though writing is an end in itself. Where is the story here? Nothing ever happens. Characters talk for the sake of talking, around and around and around the subject without ever getting to the point. They never really act, they just talk about acting: how, given a particular set of circumstances and inferred assumptions, one might, if one were of a mind to at some future date, consider the possibility of determining a course of action. In his preface to the 'New York Edition', James describes the best scene in the book as one of Isabelle sitting motionless in a chair. If this is your idea of a good time, have at it!

I like the reflection of the Mosad internal procedures on the one hand, on the other hand I am not a big fan of fictitious writing. Never the less I recommend reading this book, it looks like being loyal to reality in many ways.