Mrs. Osmond

Starred review from September 18, 2017
Banville’s sequel to Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady is a delightful tour de force that channels James with ease. The rich and measured prose style is quintessentially Jamesian: the long interior monologues perfectly capture the hum of human consciousness, and the characters are alive with psychological nuance. Readers join James’s heroine where his classic left her; Banville’s Isabel Archer Osmond is now a sedate, proper matron, who bitterly rues her marriage to deceitful Gilbert Osmond. She retains her high-minded principles, however, and has determined to live with her guilt at having ignored the advice she had received against marrying him. Gilbert is a cruel, arrogant man who condescends to Isabel in cutting language, lives off her fortune, and demands her complete loyalty. Having defied Gilbert when he forbade her to leave their home in Rome to hurry to her dying cousin’s bedside in England, Isabel feels the first stirrings of freedom. Almost capriciously, she withdraws a large amount of money from the bank in the hopes of having it free to spend as she sees fit without the interference of her husband and his malign mistress, Madame Merle. After Isabel’s redoubtable lady’s maid, Staines, discloses some astonishing news, the narrative takes a suspenseful turn. Some of the other characters from The Portrait of a Lady—including Isabel’s aunt, Mrs. Touchett; Pansy Osmond, Gilbert’s daughter; and American journalist Henrietta Stackpole—appear again. It is clear the freedom and social clout that money bestows in the 19th-century settings of London, Paris, Florence, and Rome, all described in lush detail. As in James’s novel, Banville incorporates a wonderful sense of irony; the result is a novel that succeeds both as an unofficial sequel and as a bold, thoroughly satisfying standalone. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

September 15, 2017
A sequel to The Portrait of a Lady that may well delight fans of that Henry James masterpiece and leave other readers bemused by the contemporary work's 19th-century sensibility. When last seen in Portrait, Isabel Osmond, nee Archer, has left London to return--inexplicably or inevitably--to Rome and her psychologically abusive husband, Gilbert. In this sequel, Isabel delays that confrontation for almost two months as she seeks counsel from friends and ponders her shortcomings, dead marriage, and the sort of freedom she desires. There's a comically appalling vegetarian dinner with a suffragette acquaintance, featuring "uncompromising greens," a late-night talk-a-thon with her bluestocking friend, Henrietta Stackpole, and a soiree at the Paris home of an American heiress, where Isabel encounters nemesis Serena Merle, her husband's partner in more crimes than James set forth. Isabel also withdraws "a very large sum" in cash from her London bank and carries it about in a leather satchel. She misplaces it and retrieves it, only to have Banville (The Blue Guitar, 2015, etc.) conceal its whereabouts for much of the book until it comes to serve the overarching theme of freedom. The disappearing cash is one of the subtler devices (cliffhangers end several chapters) he uses to bring some tension to this slowly unfolding drama, in which Isabel's Grand Detour before the reckoning with Gilbert--London, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Florence, Rome--offers most of the action: boarding a train, ferry, or horse-drawn carriage. Fans of Henry will find the writing persuasively Jamesian in its voice and diction, its syntax less labyrinthine. Fans of John should deem it marvelously Banville-an in its observations, humor, and insight--though they may wonder at this literary diversion by a writer who already plies the pen name Benjamin Black. A sequel that honors James and his singular heroine while showing Banville to be both an uncanny mimic and, as always, a captivating writer.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2017

In Booker Prize winner Banville's bold continuation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer Osmond probes the extent of her resolve after the death of her beloved cousin Ralph Touchett. To attend Ralph's funeral in England, she leaves her home in Rome under threat from her husband that doing so will forever strain their marriage. She also departs with the knowledge that her stepdaughter Pansy is not the child of Gilbert Osmond and his deceased first wife but rather the offspring of Gilbert and the scheming Madame Merle. This revelation moves Isabel to set in motion an audacious plan to regain her freedom from Merle and Osmond. Along the way, several missteps expose her fragility and the limits of her worldly knowledge. Ultimately, Isabel's optimism, tempered with wisdom earned from experience, equips her to achieve a formidable victory over her antagonists, but at a price. VERDICT Banville's brilliant 17th novel uncannily evokes James's limpid prose, deft plotting, and finely limned characterization to offer a credible sequel to one of the greatest novels ever written. Banville's genius is unquestionable.--John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017

In Booker Prize winner Banville's bold continuation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer Osmond probes the extent of her resolve after the death of her beloved cousin Ralph Touchett. To attend Ralph's funeral in England, she leaves her home in Rome under threat from her husband that doing so will forever strain their marriage. She also departs with the knowledge that her stepdaughter Pansy is not the child of Gilbert Osmond and his deceased first wife but rather the offspring of Gilbert and the scheming Madame Merle. This revelation moves Isabel to set in motion an audacious plan to regain her freedom from Merle and Osmond. Along the way, several missteps expose her fragility and the limits of her worldly knowledge. Ultimately, Isabel's optimism, tempered with wisdom earned from experience, equips her to achieve a formidable victory over her antagonists, but at a price. VERDICT Banville's brilliant 17th novel uncannily evokes James's limpid prose, deft plotting, and finely limned characterization to offer a credible sequel to one of the greatest novels ever written. Banville's genius is unquestionable.--John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2017
What nerve it takes to pick up the thread of a masterpiece by the most discerning anatomist of the human psyche, the virtuoso spinner of sinuous, stealthily devastating sentences; yet who better to audaciously continue the story of Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady than Man Booker winner Banville? The conclusion of James' novel poses the tantalizing question: After learning the shocking truth about her oppressive, loveless marriage and leaving Rome, will dutiful Isabel Archer Osmond return to her monstrous husband? Banville dramatizes her ruminations and surprising course of action via deftly choreographed and painfully revelatory sparring sessions between the distraught though increasingly strategic Isabel and her allies (her friend Henrietta Stackpole) and enemies (her cold-blooded spouse and his poisonous cohort, Madame Merle) in grandly evoked settings in London, Paris, and Florence. At once crisply witty and deeply empathic, Banville deftly pairs scorching social irony with laser-precise insights into the cage of sexism and the trap of wealth, the betrayal of innocence and trust, and the allure of revenge. With viciously mannered dialogue and breathtaking psychological metaphors (Isabel feels like a hearse carrying the warm little corpse of her own heart ), he dramatizes Isabel's quest for higher moral ground only to slyly leave his novel's ending as enigmatic as its inspiration. Banville's gamble, daring us to compare his sequel to James' classic, pays off deliciously.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)