The Lioness of Boston

A Boston newspaper comments on Isabella’s visible presence at the opening of the gardens. Jack comments on the obvious warmth between Isabella and Mr. Valentine, but she reassures him that there is nothing romantic in their friendship. Rather, she counters, “[I]s there anything more exciting than being understood?” (205).

Julia and Isabella share a quiet conversation during a family gathering. Isabella admits that, even though she loves caring for her nephews, she still longs for a greater purpose. Julia tells Isabella a secret: In addition to her four sons, she lost an infant son when he was very young. Julia thinks the best thing to do with deep grief is to quietly put it aside.

In the spring of 1878, Isabella is preparing to depart for Europe with her nephews. Before she goes, she attends a lecture at Harvard, where Norton has formed a society dedicated to studying Dante.

Isabella and her family travel through England and France. During this time, she corresponds with Norton and with a young woman named Maud Howe Elliott.

In London, Isabella meets the writer Henry James and the painter James McNeill Whistler; she is accompanied by her eldest nephew, Joe. Isabella is excited by their ideas about how best to display and celebrate art. Joe comments on how Isabella’s friendships with men, especially artists, writers, and intellectuals, seem to nourish her, and Isabella explains how these friendships have helped her to develop a sense of self. She is excited to see what the future holds for Joe as he begins his studies at Harvard.

Isabella goes to the Boston Zoological Gardens. She is friends with one of the employees, and he encourages her to take a walk with the two partially tame lions on leashes. The sight of Isabella walking with the lions causes a local sensation.

In 1882, Isabella meets Oscar Wilde at a party hosted by the friends she has made in Boston. Wilde helps her to realize that “for all the circles in which I had never been welcomed, it had never dawned on me that I might create my own” (239). Isabella is distracted by meeting a man named Frank Marion Crawford; she finds him extremely attractive and desirable.

Isabella is distracted by thoughts of Crawford; she continues to remain active in a lecture series and writes to Julia to express her hopes of one day acquiring a painting she has recently seen.

During the summer of 1882, Isabella relocates to Newport (a popular seaside resort for wealthy New Englanders). Crawford is also there, and he and Isabella begin an affair. She confides these experiences via a letter to Henry James, who is sympathetic to her emotions and desires.

Isabella wonders if Jack is aware of her affair; she still loves her husband deeply and appreciates their shared history even more as they grow older. She continues her affair with Crawford during the autumn months and plans to host a lecture series at her home. A professor will be lecturing on the history of Japan.

Isabella goes for ice cream with a group of female friends; most of the other women are writers, activists, or otherwise notable. Isabella wonders how she can make a meaningful contribution to society.

The affair between Isabella and Crawford continues through the autumn and winter of 1882.

Isabella causes a scene by going to a tobacco shop and purchasing cigarettes (it was not common for a woman to openly smoke). She also writes to Henry James, hinting that she believes Crawford’s affection for her is declining.

By the spring of 1883, Isabella is consumed by her affair: “I knew it was merely a painting, an image I would carry with me, yet I lived as though it were real” (264). Her friend Maud suggests that Isabella might travel to Asia since she has enjoyed hosting the lecture series on Asian history so much.

Isabella proposes a trip to Japan and India; initially, she plans to travel with Crawford. However, on Isabella’s birthday (April 14, 1883), Crawford fails to show up for a planned meeting, leaving Isabella devastated. She ends up traveling with Jack and enjoying their time together.

Between 1883 and 1884, Jack and Isabella travel from Japan to India, onwards to England, then to Venice, and then back to England. They are in London in August 1884 when they learn that Jack’s father has died. They immediately prepare to return to Boston, where they will move to the Gardner family estate (Green Hill). On the voyage back to Boston, Isabella writes to Crawford; it has now been two years since they began their affair in the summer of 1882. She rebukes him for his callousness and makes it clear that she will never have a relationship with him again.

Isabella reflects on the three portraits that were painted of her, and how they will endure after her death.