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The language is unbelievably exceptional…..
the power - the seduction - the story - the characters - [complex yet translucent and comprehensible] ….was brilliantly written.
My enjoyment was plentiful….
….the themes about freedom, choice, searching for one’s own identity, marriage, resistance of victimization, sexual equality, how people behave, relationship entanglements, manipulation, drama…
it’s all there ….
and….
Isabel Archer was a fascinating- innocent, intelligent, personality of a protagonist!
“The danger of a high spirit was the danger of a high inconsistency”.
“There are only two types of class…
….people I trust…
And
….people I don’t…
Luckily Isabell fell into the first type of class”…..
“Isabell‘s originality is that she gave the impression of having independent thoughts totally of her own”…..
“She had effaced herself when he first knew her; she had made herself small, pretending there was less of her than there really was”.
“Don’t make me out too old, Isabel patiently answered.
You come back to that very often, and I’ve never denied it. But I must tell you that, old friends as we are, if you had done me the honor to ask me to marry you I should have refused you on the spot”.
“This subtle modulation marked a momentous discovery—the perception of an entirely new attitude on the part of her listener. Madame Merle had guesssd in an instant that everything was at end between them, and in the space of another instant she had guessed the reason why. The person who stood there was not the same one she had seen hitherto, but was a very different person—a person who knew her secret. This discovery was tremendous, and from the moment she made it the most accomplished of women faltered and lost her courage. But only for that moment. Then the conscious stream of her perfect manner gathered itself again and flowed on as smoothly as might be to the end. But it was only because she had the end and you that she was able to proceed. She had been touched with a point that made her quiver, and she needed all the alertness of her will to repress her agitation. Her only safety was in her not betraying herself. She resisted this, but the startled quality of her voice refused to improve—she couldn’t help it—while she heard herself say she hardly knew what. The tide of her confidence ebbed, and she was able only just to glide into port, faintly grazing the bottom. Isabel saw it as distinctly as if it had been reflected in a large clear glass. It might have been a great moment for her, for it might have been a moment of triumph. That Madame Merle had lost her pluck and saw before her the phantom of exposure—this in itself was a revenge, this in itself was almost the promise of a brighter day. And for a moment during which she stood apparently looking out the window, with her back half-turned, Isabel enjoyed that knowledge. On the other side at the window lay the garden of the convent; but this is not what she saw; she saw nothing of the budding plants and the glowing afternoon. She saw, in the crude light of that revelation which had already become a part of experience to which the very fragility of the vessel in which it had been offered her only gave an intrinsic price, the dry staring fact that she had been an applied handle hung-up tool, as senseless and convenient as mere shaped wood and iron. All the bitterness of this knowledge surged into her soul again; it was as if she felt on her lips the taste of dishonour. There was a moment during which, if she had turned and spoken, she would have said something that would hiss like a lash. But she closed her eyes, and then the hideous vision dropped. What remained was the cleverest woman in the world standing there within a few feet of her and knowing as little what to think as the meanest. Isabel’s only revenge was to be silent still—to leave Madame Merle in this unprecedented situation”.
Written in 1881…..
understandably a classic masterpiece.
This is only the second Henry James novel I’ve read …
I read “Turn of the Screw”, years ago….
I’m thinking about “The Golden Bowl” …. for my next Henry James novel…but not immediately….
It’s clear Henry James books could be read and re-read —
….that to absorb all in one reading is highly unlikely.
the power - the seduction - the story - the characters - [complex yet translucent and comprehensible] ….was brilliantly written.
My enjoyment was plentiful….
….the themes about freedom, choice, searching for one’s own identity, marriage, resistance of victimization, sexual equality, how people behave, relationship entanglements, manipulation, drama…
it’s all there ….
and….
Isabel Archer was a fascinating- innocent, intelligent, personality of a protagonist!
“The danger of a high spirit was the danger of a high inconsistency”.
“There are only two types of class…
….people I trust…
And
….people I don’t…
Luckily Isabell fell into the first type of class”…..
“Isabell‘s originality is that she gave the impression of having independent thoughts totally of her own”…..
“She had effaced herself when he first knew her; she had made herself small, pretending there was less of her than there really was”.
“Don’t make me out too old, Isabel patiently answered.
You come back to that very often, and I’ve never denied it. But I must tell you that, old friends as we are, if you had done me the honor to ask me to marry you I should have refused you on the spot”.
“This subtle modulation marked a momentous discovery—the perception of an entirely new attitude on the part of her listener. Madame Merle had guesssd in an instant that everything was at end between them, and in the space of another instant she had guessed the reason why. The person who stood there was not the same one she had seen hitherto, but was a very different person—a person who knew her secret. This discovery was tremendous, and from the moment she made it the most accomplished of women faltered and lost her courage. But only for that moment. Then the conscious stream of her perfect manner gathered itself again and flowed on as smoothly as might be to the end. But it was only because she had the end and you that she was able to proceed. She had been touched with a point that made her quiver, and she needed all the alertness of her will to repress her agitation. Her only safety was in her not betraying herself. She resisted this, but the startled quality of her voice refused to improve—she couldn’t help it—while she heard herself say she hardly knew what. The tide of her confidence ebbed, and she was able only just to glide into port, faintly grazing the bottom. Isabel saw it as distinctly as if it had been reflected in a large clear glass. It might have been a great moment for her, for it might have been a moment of triumph. That Madame Merle had lost her pluck and saw before her the phantom of exposure—this in itself was a revenge, this in itself was almost the promise of a brighter day. And for a moment during which she stood apparently looking out the window, with her back half-turned, Isabel enjoyed that knowledge. On the other side at the window lay the garden of the convent; but this is not what she saw; she saw nothing of the budding plants and the glowing afternoon. She saw, in the crude light of that revelation which had already become a part of experience to which the very fragility of the vessel in which it had been offered her only gave an intrinsic price, the dry staring fact that she had been an applied handle hung-up tool, as senseless and convenient as mere shaped wood and iron. All the bitterness of this knowledge surged into her soul again; it was as if she felt on her lips the taste of dishonour. There was a moment during which, if she had turned and spoken, she would have said something that would hiss like a lash. But she closed her eyes, and then the hideous vision dropped. What remained was the cleverest woman in the world standing there within a few feet of her and knowing as little what to think as the meanest. Isabel’s only revenge was to be silent still—to leave Madame Merle in this unprecedented situation”.
Written in 1881…..
understandably a classic masterpiece.
This is only the second Henry James novel I’ve read …
I read “Turn of the Screw”, years ago….
I’m thinking about “The Golden Bowl” …. for my next Henry James novel…but not immediately….
It’s clear Henry James books could be read and re-read —
….that to absorb all in one reading is highly unlikely.
