He was fearless in his depiction of the play of [Isabel’s] consciousness; her high ideals, her need for freedom were dramatized against repression and dark restriction. In concentrating on her fate in the world, he created one of the most magnificent figures in the large and sprawling house of fiction.
Books The Portrait of a Lady
- Author
-
Henry James
- Year
- 1881
- Publisher
- Houghton, Mifflin and Company
Colm Tóibín
-
The Portrait of a Lady ends with a conclusion so elusive as to trouble readers ‘hot for certainties’—the married virtuous heroine’s friend exhorts the rejected Caspar: ‘Just you wait.’ There is nothing in the plot for Caspar to wait for—except Life itself; losing his dream, he will live and change.
Barbara Everett
The House of Mirth
Brideshead Revisited
The Age of Innocence