Moving The Story Along (Commentary)

If you’ve been following my sequel to The Portrait of a Lady, you know I have decided to post the chapters and numbers 1-10 are offered here. With Chapter ten, I answered one of my many questions about why the Osmond’s marriage turned rancorous. What happened during the missing three years, omitted by HJ, from Isabel’s rebellious betrothal in Florence to finding resigned enemies living in a palace in Rome? Yes, it was predicted by everyone that Osmond would be a jerk. James wrote the book and he had to give Isabel a conflict as she "faced her destiny". He loved his character who reminded him of his cousin Minnie. But the master is subtle. It is not black and white, good against evil. He leaves it open to some interpretation, especially with Isabel's return to him at the end of the story.

I also answered “a thing”* that has been bothering me all along: how do you just dismiss so thoroughly a dead baby boy? James gave this incident approximately one sentence in the entire long saga of Isabel Archer. (And that sentence blithely iterated by none other than the scheming Madame Merle.) I take issue with that omission but I do know that infants did not always survive in the 19th century, it was not all that uncommon to lose a child at birth or shortly after. In chapter ten of my sequel, their son is given his due. It is my opinion that his death was the start of the disintegration of the marriage. I show that to be the case.

So now we have the Osmonds reunited after Isabel’s renegade trip to England to see her cousin before he died. They’ve called a truce. The story continues though I have no storyline in place. I think I’ve mentioned this more than a few times. I’m taking it brick by brick as HJ did. He cared not a whit about plot or endings. His only concern was character, in this case Isabel Archer Osmond and to a lesser extent those around her - he referred to them as spokes in a wheel of which she was the center.

I hope I can come up with some dark moments. I’m not at all sure HJ would care for lighthearted or a happily-ever-after scenario, as is my tendency. But then again, it is my sequel, is it not?

*HJ was always talking about “a thing” this or “a thing” that.