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COPYRIGHT 2004 American Library Association
Last week I finally finished Henry James' masterpiece, Portrait of a Lady. I can't remember taking so long to read a book. I carried it around with me everywhere I went for a good eight weeks. You're probably thinking that my inability to complete the book was a function of James' prolixity. Ironically enough, that's really not the case. Portrait is actually a fairly easy read True, it's a longish book (600-plus pages), but it's not particularly abstruse Unlike the novels (The Ambassadors, among others) that James wrote near the end of his life, Portrait is readable. I wouldn't describe the style as simple and declarative, but the sentence structure is mostly coherent, and the literal meaning is fairly understandable.
The plot of the book is also rather direct, and the message is quite cogent. Isabel Archer is the "lady," and it is her portrait that James paints. A young American woman of modest income, high spirits, and...
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