Product Description

When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. It is only when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the cultivated but worthless Gilbert Osmond that she discovers that wealth is a two-edged sword and that there is a price to be paid for independence. With its subtle delineation of American characters in a European setting, Portrait of a Lady is one of the most accomplished and popular of Henry James's early novels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67232 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

About the Author
Born in New York of Irish and Scottish ancestry and educated in New York, London and Paris, Henry James is best known for his cosmopolitan and often haunting portraits of European and American life. He was also a prolific writer of literary criticism and shorter fiction. James settled in England in 1876, where he spent most of the rest of his life and completed his best-known work. Geoffrey Moore was General Editor for the works of Henry James in Penguin Patricia Crick teaches Modern Languages

Customer Reviews

'Powerful' as a word barely does justice to this profound psychological study
This book is about the psychology and ethical dilemmas of a Translatlantic marriage. I've not read this book for years, but when over 25 years ago I did read it, I was sandbagged, as the quaint British phrase has it. Having been to James's museum in Rye, Sussex (Lamb House, Rye) and read some of his vain sounding self description and his reasons for seeking naturalization as a British subject, shortly before his death in 1916, I still have memories of my exposure to this novel - in a galaxy far away - which will doubtless mark me for life: such is the sheer force of this study.

The Apostle Paul, Bakunin, Lenin, and other writers, have a way of expressing themselves in a way so powerful, that it seems that everything in their wake is carried away. I got a similar impression from this book.

It takes some reading. You might not get into it for the first few hundred pages but once you do you may not ever be quite the same again.

"The real offense was her having a mind of her own at all."
When Isabel Archer, a bright and independent young American, makes her first trip to Europe in the company of her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, who lives outside of London in a 400-year-old estate, she discovers a totally different world, one which does not encourage her independent thinking or behavior and which is governed by rigid social codes. This contrast between American and European values, vividly dramatized here, is a consistent theme in James's novels, one based on his own experiences living in the US and England. In prose that is filled with rich observations about places, customs, and attitudes, James portrays Isabel's European coming-of-age, as she discovers that she must curb her intellect and independence if she is to fit into the social scheme in which she now finds herself.

Isabel Archer, one of James's most fully drawn characters, has postponed a marriage in America for a year of travel abroad, only to discover upon her precipitate and ill-considered marriage to an American living in Florence, that it is her need to be independent that makes her marriage a disaster. Gilbert Osmond, an American art collector living in Florence, marries Isabel for the fortune she has inherited from her uncle, treating her like an object d'art which he expects to remain "on the shelf." Madame Serena Merle, his long-time lover, is, like Osmond, an American whose venality and lack of scruples have been encouraged, if not developed, by the European milieu in which they live.

James packs more information into one paragraph than many writers do in an entire chapter. Distanced and formal, he presents psychologically realistic characters whose behavior is a direct outgrowth of their upbringing, with their conflicts resulting from the differences between their expectations and the reality of their changed settings. The subordinate characters, Ralph Touchett, Pansy Osmond, her suitor Edward Rosier, American journalist Henrietta Stackpole, Isabel's former suitor Caspar Stackpole, and Lord Warburton, whose love of Isabel leads him to court Pansy, are as fascinating psychologically and as much a product of their own upbringing as is Isabel.

As the setting moves from America to England, Paris, Florence, and Rome, James develops his themes, and as Isabel's life becomes more complex, her increasingly difficult and emotionally affecting choices about her life make her increasingly fascinating to the reader. James's trenchant observations about the relationship between individuals and society and about the effects of one's setting on one's behavior are enhanced by the elegance and density of his prose, making this a novel one must read slowly--and savor. Mary Whipple

Glad I returned to James
I vaguely remember encountering Henry James in an American Literature course when I was in high school. At the time, I recalled the short stories by James as long-winded and I wearied of the descriptions of meaningful looks and various brocades and expansive gardens. I returned to Henry James and chose Portrait of a Lady based on an online review I read. I was instantly absorbed in the tale and those once exhausting passages only pulled me in further into the time period. I would also like to recommend the Nichole Kidman film as a companion -- it stays remarkably close to the story. Brew some tea and then indulge in the captivating tale of an independent woman and the society that represses her spirit.