num_pages: 556
description: "No other American and few Europeans can match [the] superb feminine creations of the chief American master of the art of fiction." - Oscar CargillThe heroine of this novel is a young American, Isabel Archer. Blessed by nature and fortune, high-spirited and independent, she arrives in Europe to seek the full realization of her potential. In the cultured brilliance of international society, she enters a seemingly charmed existence. An English aristocrat and an aggressive American woo her; her sensitive, ironic cousin, the invalid Ralph, becomes her adoring adviser. But it is only after the ingenuous Isabel falls prey to, and suffers from, the machinations of a sophisticated and infinitely calculating older woman that she achieves final dimension as a woman and profound triumph as a human being.
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: 79296
places: Italy, England, Florence, Tuscany, Rome
publisher: Signet Classics