The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady is one of the most popular of Henry James’ novels and considered a masterpiece. Set mainly in Italy and England, its heroine Isabel Archer, a young American heiress, seeks her future among the upper classes in European society. Her maternal aunt, Lydia Touchette, invites Isabel to visit at the family estate near London after the death of her father. Lord Warburton, neighbor to the Touchettes, proposes marriage, as does Caspar Goodwood, heir to a Boston fortune. Her invalid uncle dies and leaves her a portion of his fortune. Savoring independence, she rejects both, and travels the Continent. In Florence she meets and marries American expatriate and widower Gilbert Osmond, a match that proves to be troubled. Isabel bonds with Ormond’s daughter, Pansy, and supports her marriage plans, which conflict with the wishes of her father. Isabel leaves for England to comfort her dying cousin Ralph despite the objections of Ormond. Goodwood again courts her, but she chooses instead to return to Italy. The reader is left to wonder whether she will suffer her tragic marriage or eventually make other plans. The book was first serialized in the Atlantic Monthly in America and Macmillan’s Magazine in England in 1880-1881 before released as a book in 1881. It was acclaimed for its deep analysis of human consciousness and motivation, and did much to raise the awareness of the limited range of options available to Victorian women as they dealt with the lure of freedom and the tug of responsibility.