If Isabel Asher had never come into fortune, would she still choose Gilbert Osmond?
If she remained poor, would she reconsider Lord Warburton’s proposal?
That once Realist story of the late 19th century sounds not much different from those “heart-first-reason-later” stories of the Romantic period, when discussed in this 21st century in which what a girl (like me) value most in life must be turned down by money (oh, I am so sick with this word!).
I wish Henry James came back in this century of capitalism and gave me the answer. Maybe he would point out a possible way for me to go on as a victor, and not to fall as a victim later.
Why is it money that is so overwhelming?
Why is it not something else?
