The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2
Volume 2 finds Isabel Archer imprisoned in a marriage that reveals itself as a carefully constructed trap. Having chosen Gilbert Osmond for his apparent cultivation and quiet intensity, she discovers too late that his charm masks a petty vanity and a corrosive need to control. As she moves through the gilded parlors of Europe, trapped by her own decision, James conducts a masterly excavation of a woman's gradual awakening to the prison she has built around herself. The novel traces her entanglement with the returned Lord Warburton, her deepening friendship with the dying Ralph Touchett, and the poisonous role of her friend Madame Merle, a figure of staggering duplicity. This is psychological fiction at its finest: a tragedy not of fate but of freedom misused, of intelligence blind to its own vanities. James writes with devastating precision about the way we convince ourselves of our own autonomy while making choices that diminish us.
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“It has made me better loving you... it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I really am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything better. It’s just as when one has been trying to spell out a book in the twilight, and suddenly the lamp comes in. I had been putting out my eyes over the book of life, and finding nothing to reward me for my pains; but now that I can read it properly I see that it’s a delightful story.””
— Henry James
“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.””
— Henry James
“Her reputation for reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic.””
— Henry James
“I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand; I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.””
— Henry James
“I always want to know the things one shouldn't do.""So as to do them?" asked her aunt."So as to choose," said Isabel””
— Henry James
“I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination.””
— Henry James
“She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.””
— Henry James
“And remember this, that if you've been hated, you've also been loved.””
— Henry James
“She is written in a foreign tongue.””
— Henry James
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2d"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2 by Henry James free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2d)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2d][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2 by Henry James free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2dCite this book
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James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2d.James, H. (n.d.). The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2dJames, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-portrait-of-a-lady-volume-2-e18e883e-f7db-482b-9bf7-a76dce5ceb2d.
