This book has one of the worst endings of all the books I've ever read--ever. It's not that the ending is disappointing or that I disagree with the characters' decisions; these things do not necessarily make for a bad ending. It's that the ending just sort of fizzled out. It's as if Henry James looked at his work and thought to himself, "Well this sure is a long book--I'm getting a bit bored with it," then left his readers out to dry. I love lengthy tomes, but a lengthy tome calls for an appropriately satisfying ending otherwise I end up wondering why I invested so much time in a book. Read Portrait of a Lady for the wonderful witty dialogue and the well-written character descriptions, but don't read it if you want to be satisfied in the least with the final outcome of it all.