num_pages: 627
description: Published in 1881, The Portrait of a Lady is the most stunning achievement of Henry James's early period - in the 1860's and 1870's when he was transforming himself from a talented young writer into one of the greatest novelists of modern times. The "lady" of the title, Isabel Archer - a beautiful, intelligent, and headstrong American woman newly endowed with wealth and embarked in Europe on a treacherous journey to self-knowledge - is delineated with a magnificence that is at once casual and tense with force and insight. The characters with whom she is entangled are each rendered with a virtuosity that suggests dazzling imaginative powers, and the scene painting - in England and Italy - provides a continuous visual pleasure while always remaining crucial to the larger drama.
language: English
title: The Portrait of a Lady
titlecomplete: The Portrait of a Lady
characters: Gilbert Osmond, Lord Warburton, Edward Rosier, Pansy Osmond, Caspar Goodwood, Ralph Touchett, Isabel Archer, Henrietta Stackpole, Lydia Touchett, Madame Merle
genres: Literature, American, Classics, Novels, Classic Literature, Victorian, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance
ratings_count: 79305
places: Italy, England, Florence, Tuscany, Rome
publisher: Premier Classics