Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Discussion is open!

I hope I am not the only one that read this book for this month's read! I just finished Portrait. It was a calm, character study of an American in Europe and the choices she makes, as well as how she deals with decisions she comes to regret. It took awhile for me to get into it (the prologue in my copy was nearly impossible to get through, but somewhat interesting after I had completed reading the novel), but once it got going, I did want to see where it would take me. While I appreciated the story, I have a suspicion that it may not stay with me for long. Yet it was a pleasant enough read with a few laughs along the way. I look forward to learning what others thought. What did you think of Isabel? Did Osmond ever really love her?

I’m halfway through, but really enjoying it so far. There is a lot of ambiguity in individual sentences that I’m not sure I’m completely absorbing, but overall it’s still interesting and resonates with me. Interesting to read alongside Clarissa, they were separated by over 100 years I think but society was still very repressed, and options for women ultimately very limited.

They also just touch on similar themes, like the focus on Christian morality and how that is closely tied up with what’s proper, and the inherent violence towards women implied by the restrictions that have been set on them. Anyways I’ll try to post again when I’m finished, congrats on working through though as it’s definitely a challenging read!

Elizabeth wrote: "I’m halfway through, but really enjoying it so far. There is a lot of ambiguity in individual sentences that I’m not sure I’m completely absorbing, but overall it’s still interesting and resonates ..."

Okay, so I finished it! I thought it was amazing. So many thoughts lol.
1) Osmond. What a creepy villain. I love how (at least for me) he snuck up on us; even though his machinations are revealed at the very beginning, I was still surprised when the extent of his villainy was revealed at the end. He is going to stay with me for a while. If I was smarter I would explain the symbolism of him tracing out the antique coin, but I feel like it could represent so many different things - obsession with a cheap and incomplete copy of the past, maybe? Obsession with worldly things? Inability to create anything of his own, even in private, for himself?
@LDB - I believe Isabel when she says that he loved her, but that he never would have married her if not for her money. At least, I think he loved her as much as he was ever going to love anybody, and as mostly a reflection of himself. But like, even if he never loved her, or even if he loved her more than himself, it doesn't really matter because he needs to feel like he controls every woman in his life.

2) Pansy. I love that James gave her a brain. I feel like 90% of the time she would have just been a vapid pretty girl, but she is revealed to have the most depth of anyone in her family. I grew to like her and I feel like I kind of identify with what James might have been trying to express in her - the appeal of complete submission, the sacrifices that some people might make to achieve it. She was still probably the least believable character for me as she's portrayed in the book, however I think if you read her as seen through Isabel's eyes, as an example of what Isabel is trying so desperately to emulate, to become the type of person who could honor her vows and stay with Gilbert, she perhaps makes a little more sense - and that REALLY feels believable, that one woman would kind of exaggerate the submissive "feminine" qualities in another when she is feeling pressured to perform a version of submissive femininity that feels so foreign and unnatural to her.

3) All the women. One way I've been thinking about this book is how it shows how difficult it is to be a woman in a repressed patriarchal society. How about Mrs. Touchett? Or Countess Gemini? And especially Madame Merle, oof. Like had Madame Merle been a man she would have been president by now. But what is she supposed to do with all that capability as a woman, except hope that she can attach her ambition to the right man? Even Henrietta Stackpole has to sacrifice her freedom as an unmarried woman to penetrate Britain's inner life, although she gives up the least by far of any of them.

4) Death. I like reading old books because I feel like people back then were more comfortable with mortality. I feel like it really puts our present attitudes into perspective. Like I never feel more convinced after reading an author like James that now more than ever before, we are a society that considers it immoral to be unhealthy and that death is a scary thing that shouldn't be touched. I dunno. Like, modern medicine promises an explanation for everything, and of course we've made incredible strides and I'd hate to have been alive back then, but I still feel like we've lost something. And maybe this is just me. But I feel like Isabel spent more time worrying about how to a good person, than about whether she was eating the correct amount of fiber. And that I think is a better way to live. What would Henrietta Stackpole say to that? I have no idea.

5) Ambiguity. My grandma doesn't like Henry James because she says she never knows what he's talking about and people are always dying of unspecified diseases. lol. I get it. Like what in the world did James mean when he said (when Ralph was in Rome and he was explaining why Osmond hated him) that Ralph represented personal freedom? What did Ralph do, up to that point, that Isabel was aware of (so not leaving her the money) that indicated that he was so pro-freedom? A lot of the parts with Ralph I felt like I was too modern and ignorant of whatever people were talking about back then to understand. And I was honestly surprised when Isabel said he was her best friend. Like does Henrietta Stackpole mean nothing to you?!
This is probably my #1 book I would love to sit down with an expert and just take it section by section and have someone give me the context, because for so many off-hand comments I had to just say 'yep, okay' and move on without understanding them more deeply than as supporting detail for a broader point James was trying to make.

What a slog… but how achingly poignant and amazing. I detested the characters and just wanted to see where Isabel’s personal ideals would find her in the end…

@Elizabeth - I feel like Osmond was maybe more enamored than in love with Isabel, and he quickly grew bored with her, like he seems to grow bored of everything in life. Him and Madame Merle seem to have a special bond and I wondered if maybe she wasn't the love of his life but was too independent for him to do with her as he pleased. I think what you said about him wanting to control everyone is true.

The impression that has been left me from this book, a month or so after having read it, is of Isabel as a martyr, sticking with her bad decision even when there were opportunities to leave that life behind and follow other roads. While I understand wanting to take responsibility for our bad decisions, I tend to be a bit impatient with martyrs. But that is just me.