Meandering with Isabel

I am meandering around with Isabel Osmond’s life, not certain where it will go. I’ve brought her back to Rome, back to the Palazzo Roccanera and her flinty, mean-spirited husband Gilbert Osmond, had her stand up to him on the first day back and tried to portray him as James had. He is a most interesting character. More on him in the next post. I’m pleased with the second chapter where the couple meets after her return and talk it out. I felt so satisfied with the dialogue I was psyched up enough to begin this blog. Now I’m ruffling through the characters,  reading Isabel’s state of mind hoping to find some new conflict that will make a story. I have Isabel and Osmond in a truce for now which doesn’t make for exciting reading but truces end, don't they?

James had Madame Merle leaving for America where she was to stay for some time but I decided she was too worthy of a character to put in exile, too much a part of the story to ignore. I brought her back from America  early with a rich husband in tow. I wanted to do something nice for her: James left her in a failed state, pitiful, banished and despised by Isabel, Osmond and  Pansy, who is her daughter, though the girl is as of yet unaware of her parentage. Will I change that?  I’m not sure. I first want to know who is the real Madame Merle and will write more on her later.

Henrietta Stackpole is an appealing character; a feisty, opinionated American journalist, who incidentally,  has the last line in the story with the unsatisfactory ending. I’ve put her prominently in my sequel beginning in the seventh chapter but am not sure how much of her life I really want to go into, or rather, how important she will figure in Isabel‘s life. James had her ready to start a newspaper with a legacy from Ralph Touchett and I’m keeping with that though I changed it to a magazine. We both agreed it was high time she married Mr. Bantling so I have her married and settling in London.

Isabel plans to find a suitable husband for Osmond's daughter Pansy after her father refused her first suitor, Edward Rosier in James’s story. Osmond wanted her to fetch a better price, namely marriage to Lord Warburton, but that did not go as he hoped for which he blamed Isabel. I was adamant that I’d  rescue poor little Pansy in my sequel. I have Mr. Rosier engaged to a French girl though he shows up once more at the Osmonds Thursday evening soiree to goad Osmond and attest his sincerity to Pansy. Though she is not a large character, maybe will figure as a catalyst for more trouble with Osmond. She’s sweet and docile, not the stuff of  high drama. Unless…

So there we are. I have the first six chapters completed to my satisfaction and the first draft of chapters seven, eight and nine but as I said, have not got the exact gist of the situation installed in my outline nor my mind. “Brick by brick” as Mr. James said.