I liked this much more on this read than on any previous attempt to complete it. It's probably a combination of having gotten older (and thus understanding the characters more) and also listening to it on audiobook.

It was a tough text to listen to in several places. Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond are almost too evil to really be believable. Even now, I'm not quite sure I understand Osmond's motives for treating his wife the way he did. The narrator describes it as his egotism, but it seems inadequate. Finishing this reminded me what a great thing it is to have been born in the modern age when divorce is much more common and wives seen less as the property of their husbands.

Pansy and Isabel, the two wronged and "innocent," characters seem to be neither. I think it's a frequent debate on this book whether Isabel can be seen as being as "intelligent" as the narrator describes her. I think she is more an idealist whose vision of herself and her possibilities are shattered by the commonality of an inheritance and marrying someone without truly understanding that person. Pansy is obedient, to the point of slavery, but also defiant in her personal beliefs. She loves Rosier, despite her father's admonitions, but will probably never marry him. I found her the least believable or developed of all the characters. She seemed too obedient for her age.

Overall, would recommend it to older readers. Now that I'm working and more established, I valued this as a lesson on marriage much more. There were things in this text that I think might not be understandable to the very young or the very idealistic, precisely because The Portrait of a Lady is a critique of both. ( )