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The Portrait of a Lady
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 26 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Portrait of a Lady tells the compelling and ultimately tragic tale of a beautiful young American woman's encounter with European sophistication. Set principally in England and Italy, the story follows Isabel Archer's fortunes as a variety of admirers vie for her hand. Her choice will be crucial, and she is not wanting for advice, whether from the generous-spirited Ralph Touchett or the charming Madame Merle.
The Portrait of a Lady was an immediate success upon publication; it remains the most popular of James' longer works and is generally regarded as the masterpiece of his early period.
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Story
When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors, declaring that she will never marry. It is only when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the cultivated but worthless Gilbert Osmond that she discovers that wealth is a two-edged sword.
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Highly recommended
- By David on 06-26-10
By: Henry James
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The Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 21 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as "a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action". She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path.
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Bleak and believable
- By Karen on 04-26-09
By: Henry James
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The Bostonians
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, a decade after the Civil War, The Bostonians tells the story of two cousins who battle for the affections of and control over an enchanting prophetess. While visiting his cousin Olive Chancellor, a fierce feminist deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, Basil Ransom, a Confederate Civil War veteran turned lawyer, attends a speech by the talented young orator Verena Tarrant. Basil quickly falls in love with Verena, although he disagrees with her politics; Olive, however, sees her as the future of the women's rights movement.
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A satire that turns tragic
- By Tad Davis on 08-23-20
By: Henry James
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The Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Erin Bateman
- Length: 23 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Isabel Archer is a young woman who has inherited a large sum of money after the death of her father. She is invited to visit her aunt and uncle’s estate in London, where she is greeted by a cast of eclectic neighbors, many of whom offer her marriage very quickly due to her status. Isabel is set on maintaining independence though and refuses several offers of marriage as she lives in pursuit of her destiny. Eventually, she does fall prey to the people trying to gain her fortune and settles into an unhappy marriage with an egotistical man named Gilbert Osmond.
By: Henry James
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The Bostonians
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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From Boston's social underworld emerges Verena Tarrant, a girl with extraordinary oratorical gifts, which she deploys in tawdry meeting-houses on behalf of "the sisterhood of women". She acquires two admirers of a very different stamp: Olive Chancellor, devotee of radical causes, and marked out for tragedy; and Basil Ransom, veteran of the Civil War, with rigid views concerning society and women's place therein. Is the lovely, lighthearted Verena made for public movements or private passions?
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Interesting
- By Sohairko on 02-02-19
By: Henry James
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The Mill on the Floss
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Fiona Shaw
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mill on the Floss is one of the great works of English literature. It is perhaps the most autobiographical of all Eliot's novels. The relationship between its heroine, Maggie Tulliver, and her brother, Tom, closely resembles that of George Eliot and her own brother, Isaac. The subject of sibling affection was clearly a deeply poignant one for George Eliot - she also wrote a series of beautiful and evocative sonnets entitled 'Brother and Sister'.
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Fiona Shaw makes George Eliot endurable
- By Starr on 04-21-16
By: George Eliot
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Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Cyril Taylor-Carr, The Oxford 8
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880-81 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James's most popular novels and is regarded by critics as one of his finest.
By: Henry James
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Daniel Deronda
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 36 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Meeting by chance at a gambling hall in Europe, the separate lives of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth are immediately intertwined. Daniel, an Englishman of uncertain parentage, becomes Gwendolyn's redeemer as she finds herself drawn to his spiritual and altruistic nature after a loveless marriage. But Daniel's path was already set when he rescued a young Jewess from suicide.
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Give it a try!
- By Tucker LaPrade on 01-30-16
By: George Eliot
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Washington Square
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The battle between a father and a daughter is usually portrayed in literature as a struggle between a headstrong but feisty girl and a tradition-bound lead weight of a father. Henry James, of course, had to do it somewhat differently. He tells a story of an intelligent man riding the turn of the tide in mid-19th-century New York and watching what he sees as his numbingly dull and conventional daughter making the mistake of her life in her choice of husband.
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A fine narrator, wasted
- By Tad Davis on 05-05-16
By: Henry James
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The Ambassadors
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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American Lambert Strether is sent to Paris on behalf of Mrs. Newsome, his fiancée, to collect her son, Chad. When Strether finds Chad, he discovers an altered man and becomes introduced to a free and unconventional style of life that soon intoxicates him. His views begin to change; the morality of Woollett, his hometown, becomes foreign, and the "ambassador" loses sight of his mission....
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Interesting but unfulfilling
- By Michael on 05-21-19
By: Henry James
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The Portrait of a Lady
- Penguin Classics
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Simon Harrison
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond. Charming and cultivated, Osmond sees Isabel as a rich prize waiting to be taken. In this portrait of a 'young woman affronting her destiny', Henry James created one of his most magnificent heroines, and a story of intense poignancy.
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Narrator
- By Lorri Kuczynski on 03-21-21
By: Henry James
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The Aspern Papers
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Jeremy Northam
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the wittiest and most scathing of Henry James' novellas, The Aspern Papers chronicles the attempt to extract the valuable letters of the famous and recently deceased poet Jeffrey Aspern from the hands of his past lover and formidable adversary in the battle Juliana Bordereau. The plot was reputedly suggested to James by a story he heard of an illicit attempt to get hold of several of Lord Byron's letters.
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Cat and mouse
- By Beyler Francois on 01-07-18
By: Henry James
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The Ambassadors
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Lambert Strether, a mild, middle-aged American of no particular achievements, is dispatched to Paris from the manufacturing empire of Woollett, Massachusetts. The mission conferred on him by his august patron, Mrs. Newsome, is to discover what, or who, is keeping her son Chad in the notorious city of pleasure and to bring him home. But Strether finds Chad transformed by the influence of a remarkable woman.
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Henry James can be hard to follow but worth it
- By Patricia on 01-29-13
By: Henry James
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The Europeans
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Eugenia, an American expatriate brought up in Europe, arrives in rural New England with her charming brother Felix, hoping to find a wealthy second husband after the collapse of her marriage to a German prince. Their exotic, sophisticated airs cause quite a stir with their affluent, God-fearing American cousins, the Wentworth's - and provoke the disapproval of their uncle, suspicious of foreign influences.
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wonderful novel, wonderful reader, poor recording
- By Catherine on 11-14-09
By: Henry James
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Romola
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the turbulent years following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, George Eliot's fourth novel, Romola, moves the stage from the English countryside of the 19th century to an Italy four centuries before her time. It tells the tale of a young Florentine woman, Romola de' Bardi, and her coming of age through her troubled marriage to the suave and self-absorbed Greek Tito. Slowly Tito's true character begins to unfurl, and his lies and treachery push Romola toward a more spiritual path, where she transcends into a majestic, Madonna-like role.
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Listened to it 4 times in a row
- By Theodoc on 12-14-21
By: George Eliot
What listeners say about The Portrait of a Lady
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Debbi Ashby
- 11-23-19
Juliet Stevenson is brilliant as ever
The sound engineers for this book are not
JS's narration of Henrietta for example was so loud it hurt my ears - esp because that character has such a brash nasal tone. When I'd turn down the volume when her character was speaking then I'd have to turn the volume right back up in order to hear the narrators voice or Ralph's, etc
Juliet has an amazing capacity to do so many voices expressing the personality of each character perfectly. That's talent
As for the story all I could say was WTH? at the end. It's almost as if James got tired of writing and just cut off the story as expediently as possible. To go through so much detail and flesh out each character so well then at the end just finish with She went back to Rome?
Honestly. If he was too bored or tired to end the story properly and with some logical extension of the last couple of scenes, then he should've left it up to one of his talented contemporaries to finish the story
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- William Crosby
- 08-22-18
The reading equivalent of listening to A Brahms Symphony
This is a perfect novel, brilliantly read. I enjoyed It immensely. As I said the equivalent of listening to a soulfully profound Brahms Symphony. Deeply sad but also bright, vivid and strangely optimistic.
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- Allyson
- 05-16-19
This One Will Keep You Up
This story becomes more and more engrossing as it progresses. The narrator is one of my favorites and she does the story justice with the exception of her American accents which tend to have an unlikely, crude edge...as though everyone from the USA is from the south shore of New Jersey. Putting aside that disappointment, and the disappointment of the ending, it is well worth a listen.
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- S. Mann
- 01-05-19
More subtle audio interpretation of Isabel needed
I enjoyed this reading of a novel that I know well. A major problem for me is the way Isabel Archer’s lines are read. She’s reduced to a stereotypical American—almost Henrietta Stackpole. Given the significance of her role, this is a major problem, reflecting the reader’s inability to comprehend fully the protagonist. Editor was needed early on.
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- naw74
- 06-25-21
Juliet Stevenson is wonderful
I love Juliet Stevenson as an actress on the screen, and her voice is perfect for this novel. The story was hard for me to get into at first, but once I did, I was hooked. If you like Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, etc., but want something a little grittier; this is a great choice- A classic that was new to me.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-24-23
Portrait of a Lady, after sixty years
I remember reading Portrait of a Lady in college and loving it, To revisit it today, after fifty years was delicious joy!
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- Julie Gray
- 12-02-17
Hypnotic, Romantic, Challenging
Henry James is not an easy read, let's just get that out of the way. He was an incredibly verbose, detailed writer, the likes of which we do not see in modern writing. I found his storytelling incredibly hypnotic and beautiful - but yes, it does try one's patience. Read this book if you want to give your brain a workout and improve your focus and ability to concentrate. It's very good for that, and I truly mean it. But do not read this book if you want a very plot-driven, quick read, because the plot really does take a very long time to play out and even the end is slightly abrupt, in my view. This book, like all of James' novels, is a commitment, but you will be very enriched for having read it. Personally, I preferred The Wings of the Dove because the plot - also very slow to begin and to play out - was more interesting to me, but Portrait is a fine novel as well and reading Henry James is good for the brain and the soul. I see other reviews here, complaining of the narrator's American accents, and while this did not bother me personally, yes, they are a bit theatrical but I would listen to Juliet Stephenson read a grocery list, honestly.
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7 people found this helpful
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- foodwaterbooks
- 08-16-17
Love Juliet Stevenson, but she has a terrible ear
What did you love best about The Portrait of a Lady?
not sure I loved it but there are flighs of language that are deeply wonderful
What other book might you compare The Portrait of a Lady to and why?
I think it is Diceknsian while trying to be Whartonian. James is in his own way all the time--loving his own cleverness. it's like French cooking--take some meat, do omething to it, then do something else to that and then do something alse to it it all
Would you listen to another book narrated by Juliet Stevenson?
Perhaps, but not one where she impersonated Americans. She and/or the director seem to have a very narrow view of us. Her young bright girls sound like middle aged matrons, vocally, her Isabelle sounded half-witted and breathy, Ms. Stackpole a screeching bourgeoise twice her intended age. her Englishmen did not have much to distinguish among them. Im a third-generation New Yorker, well acquainted with the different ways we can all sound and sadly she never came close. Even the odious Gilbert had less personality than described for him.and Pansy-! surely an Englishwoman can do a better French accentnnn.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Couldn't
Any additional comments?
Still finishing it. So tragic.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Roger Perrault
- 04-15-18
Packs a punch
Listening to this story after an absence of forty years serves to teach me that views change over time. Today, I see Balzac with the presence of money in relationships. James weaves a long story and then out of nowhere there is a slap to the face. The narrator successfully brings all this to life.
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2 people found this helpful
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- bill m
- 10-08-20
Another brilliant rendition of a novel by Juliet Stevenson
A brilliant book, a brilliant audible.
I noticed that in another review that there was a complaint about the American accent of Ms Stevenson. I could not disagree more. Ms Stevenson imbued a more sophisticated rendition of wealthy Americans within the stories appropriate to the late 19th century and not a Texas drawl!
This audible met all my expectations for a Juliet Stevenson performance.
Please read Mrs Oswald by John Banville for a brilliant and credible conclusion to this story,
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