opinions

Probably, it will be interesting for you to know what other people think about the book. Here are some interesting opinions, which I found on forums:

*I found that reading this book makes me love descriptive paragraphs. Henry James tried to write the description so long but it is not boring, on the contrary, its sound challenging.

*I never understood why Isabel chose Gilbert. It seemed contradictory to her stated independence that she should rush into a relationship with this fellow who appeared ambivalent to her one way or the other. Both Caspar and Warburton seemed genuinely, if not dangerously, to care for Isabel. Each of them seemed infatuated with Isabel on an emotional level. I didn't get that Caspar was in it for the sport, but it seems to border on the pathetic that neither one of them seemed able to let her go. On other hand, I couldn't understand why Isabel, once confronted with Gilbert's true nature and the underlying lie upon which her relationship was conceived, chose to imprison herself in a marriage in which she could or would never be happy. I was hoping that she would ditch them all, take her money, and run. Instead, I just felt sorry for her.

*Henry James can do no wrong for me, however convoluted his sentences, and this is a masterpiece of psychological drama

*The only Henry James novel I've read (albeit I have not read many) in which the emotional elements cut through his thick prose and really moved me deeply. The ending made me cry.

* I love this book and read it several times. Yes, James's sentences tend to be long and involved, but I like that--it slows down my reading and makes me pay attention to all the words

*Frankly, Henry James was so wordy with such tortured sentence structure, it was almost impossible to develop empathy with his heroes and heroines. This book is a perfect example of how difficult it can be. This book argues heavily for Cliff's Notes and Classic Comics

information sources:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20966

http://www.librarything.com/work/9984