Halfway through, however, we shut it down and hit the rewind button. In James' 1881 novel, which moves at the languid pace of a leisure cruise, the focus stays on the main character, Isabel Archer, a naive young American traveling through sophisticated, decadent Europe. We see what she sees. Without giving away too much of the plot, there are things going on Isabel doesn't realize, and the reader doesn't know them until that climactic point near the end when Isabel herself finds out. Henry James would have a cow.
Many people condemn the mindless violence, sex and profanity that come out of Hollywood nowadays.
They worry about what effect these movies have on our youth and our society. I suppose they're right, but most of us can avoid that sort of garbage pretty easily. Such an outrage diminishes the humanity of us all. E.W. Scripps Publications , All Rights Reserved. Site users are subject to our User Agreement .