num_pages: 649
description: 'The mere slim shade of an intelligent but presumptuous girl... a certain young woman affronting her destiny' is how Henry James describes his first perception of Isabel Archer, who grew into one of his most magnificent heroines.An American heiress newly arrived in Europe, Isabel does not look to a man to furnish her with her destiny; instead she desires, with grace and courage, to find it herself. Two eligible suitors approach her and are refused. She then becomes utterly captivated by the languid charms of Gilbert Osmond. To him, she represents a superior prize worth at least seventy thousand pounds; through him, she faces a tragic choice.Numerous critics regard The Portrait of a Lady (1882) as James's masterpiece. F.R. Leavis declared that 'we can't ask for a finer exhibition of James's peculiar gifts', and placed it with The Bostonians as one of 'the two most brilliant novels in the language'.
language: English
title: The Portrait of a Lady
titlecomplete: The Portrait of a Lady
characters: Gilbert Osmond, Edward Rosier, Ralph Touchett, Pansy Osmond, Henrietta Stackpole, Lord Warburton, Madame Merle, Lydia Touchett, Caspar Goodwood, Isabel Archer
genres: Classics, American, Novels, Classic Literature, Romance, Historical Fiction, Literature, 19th Century, Fiction, Victorian
ratings_count: 79296
places: Rome, Italy, Florence, Tuscany, England
publisher: Penguin Classics