Rating: 
Summary: The second best psychological literature I have read
Review: Henry James is a genius and his study of Isabel Archer's seduction and destruction is a classic in the psychological genre. The chapter where she sits by herself and examines her situation while the fire goes out is the single finest chapter I have read in literature. I read this book in one night (over-night) and was unable to put it down.-Kelly Whiting
Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical prose from a feministic author.
Review: Isabel Archer, a naive idealist, contrasts sharply with the guileful Europeans and their sordid commodity--lies and pretense. When she arrives in Europe on her aunt's urging to "see the world", Isabel is disillusioned to the point of expiation--her romantic ideals of the chivalrous gentlemen of Europe are replaced by the hard reality--the sinister poseur, Osmond, who lures her into a marriage of material interests. Isabel learns fast-- after five years, she is still as beautiful as ever, but the life she has lived made an indelible imprint of scathing cynicism upon her. This is a truly feministic work--the author is utterly sympathetic toward the existential position of his heroine.
Rating:
Summary: a classic for all times
Review: isabel archer could be a woman of the '90s (the 1990's that is) though she was crafted a century ago. every independent modern woman would relate to isabel's free spirit, curious mind, and determination to create her own destiny. james' heroine at once inpires admiration and affection; she is sensible and lovable. this makes it all the more heart-wrenching when her spirit is hardened by the deceiving duo of gilbert osmond and madame merle. without going into details, suffice it to say that this is a beautiful character study about a beautiful woman. however, it is also a dark tale which reminds us that even the most intelligent minds and caring souls can fall upon despair. it will be interesting to see what jane campion does with this classic
Rating: 
Summary: The rise and fall of a rich and highly stuck-up young lady.
Review: This book came highly recommended ("a book to lose oneself in") but, ultimately, I found it quite disappointing. "Portrait of a Lady" is the story of Isabel Archer, a young American woman living in Europe. Through various circumstances (none of which are particularly credible), Ms. Archer inherits a fortune and manages to induce drooling, slavish adoration in every man who meets her. Isabel falls under the spell of Madame Merle--a distinguished older woman with a mysterious past who wields a svengali-like influence over her. Madame Merle introduces Isabel to Gilbert Osmond, a self-centered dilettante living in Florence who collects beautiful women as he does Etruscan urns. Isabel Archer marries Osmond, comes to recognize him for the vile scumbag he is, and resigns herself to a lifetime of unhappiness. "Portrait of a Lady" would be well-suited for a Merchant/Ivory style movie: plenty of old English lawns and drawing rooms, Italian pensiones, and beautiful young adults exchanging furtive glances. But it's not a movie (I'd be more enthusiastic if it were); it's a book--and a mind-numbingly slow one. Admittedly, the last 100 pages are quite interesting and contain a few surprising plot twists. The book ends with a rather provocative kiss (calling into question both Isabel Archer's sexuality and/or Henry James's), but I'm not sure it's worth slogging through 750 pages to get to it
Rating:
Summary: Smooth from Start to Finish
Review: This is the first Henry James book I read and it isn't the type of book to be read in a day. Instead, this book is one you bring on vacation, for example, to savor and sink your teeth into as you lounge at the pool and spend your time between hitting the pages and either swimming laps or walking on the beach. Some books are real page-turners that you can't put down. To me, this novel didn't have that type of suspense yet it is nevertheless engrossing enough to keep you coming back for more; that is, after you have had time to properly absorb it in bits and pieces so you can appreciate the themes, ideas, and expressions it so flawlessly expresses.
James' prose flows as smooth as silk as one page after the next brings you deeper into the lives of his characters, who are all by the way very convincing as real-life people. The fun thing about this book is that you can read (sort of) into what you think is going to happen to the characters. James' narrative style keeps you guessing until you know for sure, but his reasoning for this to have you analyze the heroine, Isabel Archer (the "lady" in the title), and witness, from a bird's eye-view, how her human follies, impertinence and pride get in the way of her happiness, freedom, and fulfillment of life. You want to call out a warning to her and say, "oh no, don't do it!" I think we can all relate to the characters in the book in some form: we can either see our own selves in them by recalling our own forays of making the same mistakes, or we see in them people who have come into our lives and made huge differences either positive or negative. While reading the book you'll probably cringe thinking about how one-too-many outspoken Henrietta Stackpoles have invaded your life.
One aspect of fun in the book turned out to be James' witty opinions (often jabs) expressed by his characters at things British and also things American too. James, having lived in both countries so long, gained ample experience and came to know the culture, customs, and peculiarities of both countries well enough to where he was qualified to make the many tongue-in-cheek remarks, which I happen to find quite amusing.
While I mentioned the story is not a fast paced adventure, it is a true literary beauty that unfolds one page at a time to show various aspects of our humanity: the caring, the wicked, the selfish, the kind-hearted, the deceitful, the foolish, the persistent, the pushy, the capricious, and the vain. These are all packed into this powerful novel that I highly recommend. Although I reserve five stars for novels that to me are such riveting tales that I couldn't put them down, I still enjoyed this book tremendously and gave it a well-earned four stars. I will definitely make it a point to read many other novels by Henry James.
Rating:
Summary: Bitter Residue
Review: This book left a bitter residue in my mouth when I was expecting a pleasant treat. Isabelle Archer, the heroine of this book, has beauty, wealth, above average intelligence, and a coterie of wonderful friends who actively take a interest in helping and advising her, yet she manages to self destruct all the same. The heroine is as self absorbed as her antogonist, and hurts as many people. If you wish to read a book about a truly remarkable young woman, I recommend Middlemarch by George Elliot. That book fufills it's hype as this book does not.
Rating:
Summary: female sovereigny versus marriage
Review: "The Portrait of a Lady" was published in three volumes in 1881. The masterpiece of the first phase of James' career, the novel is a study of Isabel Archer, a young American woman of great promise who travels to Europe and becomes a victim of her own provincialism. James began the novel 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. Isabel Archer is a young woman who reads German idealist philosophy in the locked office at Albany that occludes a view of the street; an overly theoretic, though wonderfully fresh and earnest self-realizer. Unlike Daisy Miller, Isabel Archer is booked to grow up, and on that development James stakes his epic attempt to write a novel that will be a great work of art. Milton's "Paradise Lost" is the basis for James' attempt. It should suffice to say that this is a novel of "felix culpa", the fortunate fall, much like the Genesis story and even more like Milton's rewriting of it. But just as in Milton's poem, everything is pointed towards a definition of freedom. The novel certainly concerns the unexpectedly far-reaching consequences of a character's inadequacies of perception, and in that it is wholly reminiscent of "Daisy". But here alone we have a full development of necessity and freedom, circumstance and free will, in which each may take on the appearance of the other. The novel's Edenic Gardencourt is a declining, drowsy Eden. Isabel renews the vitality of this fatigued Eden. But for Isabel herself, once she struggles to an understanding of Gardencourt's high values, she will have to transform the lost place into an aspect of her spirit and have it inform her actions. Isabel is in a league with the tradition of heroines in the British realistic novel, all of them remarkable but self-deluded, in need of an encounter with the real. Isabel's final choice to return to her old life is her triumph. Intelligent readers should understand the logic of a fortunate fall. She no longer sees giving herself completely as "the deepest thing", but understands the sense that life would be her business for a long time to come. This new formulation is a huge advance, as it is no longer self-referential, but acknowledging a world in which the self participates. Her decision has nothing to do with resignation nor with duty. The self is understood, with Hawthorne and against Emerson, as a result of accumulated experience. Isabel must return to Osmond, as Hawthorne's Hester finally must return to the Boston that victimized her, to affirm her identity amongst her awful relatives. This is where her life has taken place, and anywhere else would mark not a fresh start but a dissolution. And with her return come a cluster of Miltonic allusions, turned on themselves: "The world lay before her - she could do whatever she chose". Isabel discovers "a very straight path", home to her struggle, her business, her life. Earlier, she had envied a watery death, and mistaken the devil for an instrument for expanding freedom. But now she sees the danger of false Edens. Instead, Isabel chooses to make her world. The novel embodies the national myth: an ideal of freedom and equality hedged with historical blindness and pride.
Rating:
Summary: Higher sense of being
Review: Magnificient book..takes you to a place where only true art can. Henry James knowledge of the human condition is incredible. His subtlety of thought and ability to express himself in words is trully glorious. What a rare adventure in the world of mind, heart and soul! I love this book.
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