Other editions of book The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 1

Following the death of her father, Isabel Archer leaves the comforts of Albany, New York to stay with her aunt Lydia Touchett at her London estate. There she meets Lydia’s rich husband, David, her cousin Ralph, and the Touchetts’s proud neighbor, Lord Warburton. Soon, too, come marriage proposals from Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood, the son of a wealthy mill owner. Although Isabel declines both offers, she eventually gives her hand to Gilbert Osmond, an American ex-pat in Florence.

Henry James was an American-born British writer who was one of the biggest contributors to literary realism. Much of James’ writing is from the point of view of a character in the book. James’ most famous works are Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Turn of the Screw. The Portrait of a Lady is a novel published in 1881 that follows the life of Isabel Archer, a woman born in New York who moves to Europe.

The heroine of this powerful novel is the spirited young American Isabel Archer. Blessed by nature and fortune, she journeys to Europe to seek her future, but what she finds may prove to be her undoing. She is courted by three men: an English aristocrat, an American gentleman, and a sensitive expatriate. Her invalid cousin becomes her benefactor and adviser. But it is after the ingenuous Isabel falls prey to the schemes of an infinitely more sophisticated older woman that her life takes shape. Rich in character and the interplay of tensions, The Portrait of a Lady is a brilliant, timeless, and essential American novel.