The Lioness of Boston

“I have come to believe we all have one love story, and this is mine: my house and all my different selves inside it.”

Isabella summarizes her life’s work: She constructed Fenway Court (later renamed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) and filled it with an exceptional collection of art and decorative objects. Her musings foreshadow the novel’s eventual conclusion, in which she will achieve her life’s purpose by collecting art and making it available for the public to view.

“Since marrying, I tried always to make myself appear smaller.”

Early days of her marriage, Isabella tries to fit into Boston high society. She knows that her outspokenness and strong opinions do not conform to expectations of how she should behave as the young bride of a wealthy man. She uses the image of physical size to describe her attempts to restrain and restrict her innate personality.

“I wanted the belonging and yet loathed the neediness that ensnared me, the idea that to be integral meant being one of them, and by definition thus not myself.”

Isabella describes her nuanced and contradictory emotions. On one hand, she longs for acceptance. On the other, she yearns to stay autonomous, to remain an individual. She uses metaphorical language (“ensnared”) to compare herself to a trapped animal.

“I miss Europe. I miss myself in Europe.”

Isabella says this to Jack early in their marriage, expressing her growing discontent and restlessness. As she struggles to become pregnant, Isabella feels lonely and isolated in Boston. Part of Isabella’s unhappiness stems from the fact that she is a cosmopolitan young woman who traveled extensively during her childhood and adolescence. She finds life as a young bride in Boston particularly stifling because she is accustomed to experiencing more freedom and stimulation. The repetition of “I miss” creates emphasis and rhythm.

“It is possible that we choose whom to marry far too young, when we have not yet become anyone.”

Isabella begins to feel doubts about her marriage to Jack. Isabella loves her husband but is also aware that they are not completely compatible. Isabella is critical of societal expectations because she can see that they lead to people (especially women) feeling pressured to marry while very young, and potentially end up unhappy. Isabella is aware that it can take a long time for someone to understand their true identity and purpose.

“I could feel something growing in me. Not only the baby, but another self, one I’d found on my walks, in the lab. Someone capable of progress.”

Isabella comes to feel a sense of strength and purpose because of her insistence on living life on her own terms. By the time Isabella becomes pregnant with her first child, she has devoted significant time to developing other interests and building community through unexpected friendships. Isabella is determined to work on becoming more informed and educated and strives to be continuously growing.

“If ever I should have a public space […] I should think it would be tranquil and full of great beauty.”

Isabella’s musings to her sisters-in-law foreshadow her eventual establishment of Fenway Court (a museum later renamed in her honor). At this time, she is chatting idly and has no intention of ever founding a public institution. However, her comment reveals what is important to her, and predicts the aura and atmosphere that will eventually pervade the institution she creates.

“I was angry when you met me—I just didn’t know it yet.”

Isabella says this to Jack during a quarrel, wherein Jack rebukes her for being brusque and liable to speak out about perceived injustice. As a married woman with a child, Isabella has become more confident in speaking her mind. She makes it clear that she has always been frustrated by gender and societal expectations.

“Count. Do it. Do as I say and tally up the Madonna and Child pieces. Write down the number on a slip of paper and burn it to ash.”

Isabella addresses the reader directly, surveying the art collection she has acquired during her lifetime. She notes the prominence of artworks depicting images of Jesus as an infant with his mother; this was a common subject for many European works of art for centuries. Isabella implies that she was drawn to collecting these pieces because of her lingering grief after the loss of her infant son; she was haunted by the fact that she never got to raise a child herself.

“Yet grief’s veil was only part of what covered me—I grew ill at ease when I thought of my hollow life.”

Isabella muses on her growing frustration during her first trip to Europe with Jack. While the trip reinvigorates her and helps her to move past the worst of her grief, she still feels stifled because she and Jack spend much of their time socializing with wealthy Anglo-Americans. Isabella craves not just a change of scenery but exposure to new ideas and ways of spending her time. At this time, she still lacks a sense of purpose.

“You are in this world until you leave it completely.”

During her visit to London in 1866, shortly after the death of her son and beloved friend, Isabella visits a psychic medium. The medium says the above after Isabella has a vision of her son and friend; it reminds Isabella not to fixate on her losses but to turn toward growth and new experiences. This interaction marks a turning point in Isabella’s life. While she never stops grieving, she begins to throw herself into new experiences and savoring as much joy as possible.

“Now, as I was fitted into a dress with a shockingly low neckline, I felt as though time had sped up.”

Isabella is visiting Paris in the late 1860s; she buys a fashionable but revealing dress from the noted Parisian dressmaker Charles Frederick Worth. Isabella buys the dress even though she knows it will create a scandal if she wears it in Boston. This reflects her decision to align with more progressive values and emerging ideas about aesthetics. This will later contribute to Isabella’s interest in a painting by Titian with a similar color scheme; eventually, Isabella will purchase the painting and display it near fabric inspired by the dress.

“There were always two parts of sadness, the inner one at truly hurting over not having a child of our own and the sadness imposed on us by everyone else.”

 Isabella notices Jack watching her sadly while she plays with her young nephew prior to her and Jack becoming the boys’ guardians. Isabella experiences genuine grief after the loss of her son, but her pain is compounded by societal expectations that motherhood is a woman’s primary purpose in life. Isabella genuinely longs to be a mother, but she is also able to imagine other ways she can pursue happiness.

“Wanting resuscitates us.”

Isabella reflects on how her desires, particularly to collect and acquire artworks, have provided her with purpose and momentum. Isabella’s willingness to live her life on her own terms and to freely pursue what she wants is unusual for a woman living in her era. She sees her relentless desire and drive as the key to surviving in the wake of many tragic events.

“Is there anything more exciting than being understood? Did it occur to you that my ‘connections’ are more about that than a kiss or a dalliance?”

Isabella rebukes Jack for criticizing her circle of close male friends. Some people gossip about these friendships and speculate that Isabella could be having affairs. Isabella points out that she doesn’t want men to pursue her sexually; rather, she craves the exchange of ideas and intellectual connection. Isabella’s retort shows how she and Jack have different ideals around relationships and connection.

“I did not even allow betrayal to enter my mind, for after all, any long marriage holds within it myriad slant betrayals.”

This quotation reveals Isabella’s state of mind when she begins an affair with Frank Marion Crawford. Isabella does not believe that adultery is particularly significant, as she sees a long and enduring marriage as composed of compromises, concessions, and occasional secrets. Isabella’s unconventional beliefs and stubbornness can sometimes lead to debatable ethics. While many people would support Isabella’s desires for autonomy and a meaningful life, her willingness to justify concealing an extramarital affair makes her a more complex character.

“If women are encouraged to want less, to taste less, we will accept less. And loathe ourselves for the very act of wanting.”

One of Isabella’s friends, Margaret Deland, speaks the above when a group of Boston women gather to eat ice cream. While the women are all progressive and well-educated and many of them align with feminist beliefs, they feel shy about being perceived as greedy while eating a dessert. Margaret points out that societal expectations have repressed them.

“We were often at our best abroad, as though we escaped ourselves or the selves we were in Boston.”

Beginning in 1883, Isabella and Jack travel through Asia and Europe on an extended journey. Isabella muses that travel often helps them to feel closer to one another and happier in their marriage. Isabella sees travel as beneficial and a reliable way to find personal happiness and alleviate the pain of others. However, Isabella at times uses travel as a form of escapism, a way to avoid real problems in her life and marriage.

“Intolerance killed our nephew. And for that I blame the world.”

Isabella says this to Jack after their eldest nephew, Joe Gardner, dies by suicide. The narrative strongly implies that Joe is gay and struggles with this identity. The novel takes place during a time when gay relationships could still be criminally prosecuted; it mentions Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned between 1895 and 1897. Joe also suffers the loss of both his parents at a young age. Jack initially implies that Joe had mental health challenges like his father, but Isabella insists that stigma and the threat of ostracism played a significant factor in Joe’s dying by suicide at a young age.

“My heart shattered in a million pieces long ago, and I’ve been claiming those pieces back in the form of objects and art ever since.”

Isabella says this to Frank Marion Crawford when she decides not to pursue their relationship any further. Isabella still desires Crawford, but she does not want any emotional entanglements, nor does she believe that she is capable of romantic love at this stage of her life. Isabella explains that all of her desire is going to be channeled into her art collections and acquisitions.

“When life seemed to close in around you, there was always more, always space, always room in another house. And this time, I would build my own.”

This quotation introduces Isabella’s commitment to building a new mansion that will house her expansive collection. Isabella’s decision to build Fenway Court is rooted in her sense of moving forward and exploring new experiences. Her access to great wealth enables her to pursue her passions; she can literally build a new site as her collections continue to grow. The reference to “another house” references both the physical space Isabella will build and the metaphorical space of coming into herself as a person. The repetition of “always” adds emphasis and rhythm.

“A moving bouquet of partygoers were all here not to see me--but to see what I’d made, which was another way of seeing me.”

This quotation captures Isabella’s sense of pride and satisfaction at the party celebrating the opening of Fenway Court. While she knows that many members of Boston high society still think of her as idiosyncratic and strange, she finds comfort in knowing that they appreciate her life’s crowning achievement. When people appreciate her art collection, she feels that they show her some of the respect and regard that has so often been lacking.

“There’s no doubt to the building’s magnificence, but there’s no unifying style, nor arrangement by era or artist or country of provenance.”

A reporter makes this critical comment to Isabella when Fenway Court first opens to the public. Isabella’s desire to follow her instincts and act in unconventional ways is still at odds with social expectations. She defies norms about how art is typically presented in more traditional museum and gallery spaces, but she does so in order to honor her own vision.