The Portrait of a Lady, the Titanic, Henry James and Thomas Hardy?🎨🎭🎬

Seeing that Henry James was born on April 15th and that the Titanic would sink on his birthday in 1912, I can't help but see the irony and synchromysticism of James' book 'The Portrait of a Lady' being made into a 1996 film, just as 'Titanic' was being made into a 1997 film.

And Shelly Winters from 'The Poseidon Adventure' plays Mrs. Touchett in 'The Portrait of a Lady'.

The fictional Isabel Archer's character traits are very much like the fictional lead Rose in the Titanic movie, methinks as I read Henry James' novel about an American woman abroad.

History Extra Podcast:
The Brilliance of Henry James

Rose is a 17-year-old girl, originally from Philadelphia, who is forced into an engagement to 30-year-old Cal Hockley so she and her mother, Ruth, can maintain their high-class status after her father's death had left the family debt-ridden. Rose boards Titanic with Cal and Ruth, as a first-class passenger, and meets Jack. -

"In 1996, aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, Brock Lovett and his team search the wreck of RMS Titanic. They recover a safe they hope contains a necklace with a large diamond known as the Heart of the Ocean. Instead, they find only a drawing of a young nude woman wearing the necklace. The sketch is dated April 14, 1912, the same day the Titanic struck the iceberg that caused it to sink. After viewing a television news story about the discovery, centenarian Rose Dawson Calvert contacts Lovett, identifying herself as the woman in the drawing. Hoping she can help locate the necklace, Lovett brings Rose aboard Keldysh, where she recounts her experiences as a Titanic passenger.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater, her wealthy fiancé Caledon "Cal" Hockley, and Rose's widowed mother Ruth, board the Titanic. Ruth emphasizes that Rose's marrying Cal will resolve the family's financial problems and maintain their upper-class status. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson, a poor young artist, wins a third-class Titanic ticket in a poker game. After setting sail, Rose, distraught over her loveless engagement, climbs over the stern railing, intending to commit suicide. Jack coaxes her back onto the deck and they develop a friendship. Jack soon admits that he has feelings for Rose. When Cal and Ruth strongly object, Rose rejects Jack's attentions, but returns to him after realizing she has fallen in love."

I like how Jack wins his Titanic ticket in a poker game and that 'The Portrait of a Lady' came out in 1881, because the Dead Man's Hand in poker is a pair of aces and 8s;-)

And then there is Thomas Hardy's poem about the Titanic, 'The Convergence of the Twain'.

Hardy had his heart removed to be buried with his wives, while his body was placed in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey:
everything you wanted to know

What do they say about life and heART?-)

The LIFE and HeART of Thomas Hardy's Work?