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The Portrait of a Lady

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The Portrait of a Lady

Isabel Archer, a young American, accompanies her eccentric aunt to Europe, where her wit and beauty — in addition to her substantial inheritance — quickly attract all manner of eager suitors. But beneath the romantic elegance of salons and ballrooms lies a tangle of treachery, deceit, and suffering.
The most enduringly popular of Henry James' novels, The Portrait of a Lady reflects the author's interest in the contrast between the Old and New Worlds. He traces Isabel's progress across England, Paris, Florence, and Rome with trenchant observations on customs and attitudes. The heroine's difficulties in reconciling her personal liberty with social propriety express James' shrewd appraisals of the naivete and nobility of the American character, as well as his views on the subtle refinements and conventionality of European culture. A gripping exploration of the clash between freedom and responsibility, this novel offers an accessible entree into the work of Henry James.

Reprint of the Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1882 edition.
The Atlantic Monthly; Macmillan's Magazine; 1880; 1881; Isabel Archer; Machiavellian scheming; American expatriates; New World; Old School; Lydia Touchett; Ralph Touchett; Lord Warburton; Caspar Goodwood; Gilbert Osmond; Madame Merle; American-born; British writer; 19th-century literary realism; William James; Alice James; Nobel Prize in Literature
$1.75

Original: $5.00

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The Portrait of a Lady—

$5.00

$1.75

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Isabel Archer, a young American, accompanies her eccentric aunt to Europe, where her wit and beauty — in addition to her substantial inheritance — quickly attract all manner of eager suitors. But beneath the romantic elegance of salons and ballrooms lies a tangle of treachery, deceit, and suffering.
The most enduringly popular of Henry James' novels, The Portrait of a Lady reflects the author's interest in the contrast between the Old and New Worlds. He traces Isabel's progress across England, Paris, Florence, and Rome with trenchant observations on customs and attitudes. The heroine's difficulties in reconciling her personal liberty with social propriety express James' shrewd appraisals of the naivete and nobility of the American character, as well as his views on the subtle refinements and conventionality of European culture. A gripping exploration of the clash between freedom and responsibility, this novel offers an accessible entree into the work of Henry James.

Reprint of the Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1882 edition.
The Atlantic Monthly; Macmillan's Magazine; 1880; 1881; Isabel Archer; Machiavellian scheming; American expatriates; New World; Old School; Lydia Touchett; Ralph Touchett; Lord Warburton; Caspar Goodwood; Gilbert Osmond; Madame Merle; American-born; British writer; 19th-century literary realism; William James; Alice James; Nobel Prize in Literature