As posted in Goodreads
Okay, now I think I'm ready. How do I start (again)? I read this book, at first because I have to for our third bookclub book. And although I weren't so enthusiastic about it, I have to say, Vera, I'm sorry, but in the end, I really really liked it. I guess this is also an old classic book, so people would've known the story line. I didn't, at least not in details. I knew it's about a tragic woman's life, but I didn't know how it'll end. Plus, when I checked in youtube if anyone has turn this into a movie, I saw a trailer, and then I remembered I've watched it years ago. But thankfully I only remember the bits, and most of the things were shocking for me as I read through the book.
Anyways, at the beginning, it was rather difficult to me to understand Isabel Archer's personality. Okay, it seems like she's so pretty that every guy around her fall for her, she doesn't seem to be in want of marriage, which is rather unusual for her time, I guess. But she wasn't a striking character as when I read P&P or Persuasion for example. Anyways, when she said no to the two guys' proposals, who in balance of her being not rich, and the offer came from two wealthy guys, I thought, well, that's pretty cool of you to say no. I guess, she was also unsure about what she wants at that point, and she was just going with the flow when her aunt took her to England and plan to have her going around Europe together. But then her uncle died, and her cousin, Ralph, who was very ill and didn't have plenty of things of interest, thought it might be an interesting 'project' to see what Isabel would do if she got plenty of money. She just intrigued his curiosity. And so he made his dad changed his inheritance, so Isabel will get half of his part.
But too bad there were two people who ended up taking an advantage of her situation. Isabel was immediately attached to this Madame Merle, an exotic American who seems to be getting on so well living in Europe, with tons of friends here and there, so elegant, so mature, and so full of life experience which Isabel seems to yearn for. Madame Merle introduced her to an old friend of hers, Gilbert Osmond, who together, they manipulated Isabel to marry him. At first I was so shocked by her choice. I guess she was proud of herself to be able to finance the life of this guy, who seems to not having a care about money, status, wealth, and so on. She thought he was so out of it, so different from the men she knew before, and well, he seems to be a puzzle unsolved, and so she agreed on marrying him. Almost everybody around her smelled something fishy and told her against it, but Isabel was firm about her choice.
And then we jumped into 3 years after the marriage, and here she was actually displayed with more depth to her character. Life is more tragic for her, but I have to say, I liked her better now. She understood life better. And it was because finally she saw how wide was the expectation from the reality (again! *I just finished reading Madame Bovary), and slowly she understood the wickedness of her husband, his greed for money and wealth and social status, his ability to control her actions, to make her feel rather worthless, and then the thing happened between him and Madame Merle (they had an affair, and Gilbert's naive daughter Pansy is actually Merle's), blew up in her face, and she swallowed hard the bitter pill which she consciously took by herself. Oh gosh.
*It was also amazing how this book understood the characters so well, that you see how Gilbert, in fact, didn't just manipulated Isabel. He manipulated MERLE to satisfy his needs, and after all that she's done, he disregarded her just like that, and Merle can't do anything, because she knows she brought this as well to herself. When she said, more or less, 'So I did all this vile thing for nothing?' it struck you how ruined she was. Worse than she was before.
Ralph was dying, and so despite finally confronting her husband and go AGAINST HIS WILL (I really despise Gilbert for trying to control her like that. Ugh), she went back to England and pour her heart out to her cousin, met all the people who truly cared for her, and after Ralph's death, was unsure on what she have to do next. Until one of her previous suitor, I think it's more of a possessive trait rather than love, tried to convince her to be his (because he said that Ralph also told him to take care of her after Ralph's death), for he will SAVE her. It was a really tempting offer, for sure. He kissed her, and Isabel, who just couldn't get to like this man, felt like her floating self, finally opened up a door, and there she saw, a straight path (gosh, I really loved this passage!!).
A few days after, the guy tried to find her, but she already went back to Italy. And the book... ENDS. THE BOOK ENDS. I WAS SO TRIPPED, tried to look up online what does this mean, and found no factual answer. There are only speculations. I don't know, I hope she just went to Italy to end all of this, to maybe, maybe take her stepdaughter with her back to England, and settle. She has enough money, I don't think she needs to be re-married. Just stay as far away as possible from the horrible Gilbert. I think, that's why she still thought that after all this, she can still be happy, she was young, but at least now she's wiser than before.
So anyways, I really really like the style on how this book was written. It was 700 ish page long, but after a few first chapters, it became a page turner! I just need to finish it! There are plenty of long passages, but that's where all the good and juicy thing came from. The exploration of the characters' minds, the way the character replied to each other, you see, I read Madame Bovary right after this, and it's true what other reviewer of The Portrait of a Lady said, that despite not having a vivid detail of how the dress look like etc etc, you can feel that all the characters in this book was so so much alive. REALLY. I keep on having Charlie Hunnam in my head playing Ralph, Jessica Lange as Madame Merle, and keeping John Malkovich and Nicole Kidman as Gilbert and Isabel. This book just gave me the strength to give a try on Moby Dick! And oh boy oh boy, I really really liked it! I'm so happy that I've found this gem! :)
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