Portrait of a Lady

I read Portrait of a Lady  by Henry James.  This is a classic novel from 1860's and the book that led to James' fame as a novelist.  I recently saw a play from this same era (The Heiress) and both have the same plot - women with money unable to see through their beaus to the money grabbing, manipulative monsters behind them.  I thought this novel was really long but once I learned that it was written in a series for a magazine the length makes sense.  In this book the lady is named Isabel Archer.  She grows up in upstate New York and travels to Europe with a wealthy aunt that she had only met.  She has proposals coming at her fast and furious even before she inherits a small fortune.  She doesn't want to be tied down and forced to fulfill the constrained role of a wife.  Her quest for freedom leads her to push aside 3 kind men and into the arms of a conceited jerk in Italy.  This was a good story but now I am ready for a stronger, more successful female role in a novel.