The Portrait of a Lady (Everyman's Library) - Hardcover

James, Henry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679405623 ISBN 13: 9780679405627

Publisher: Everymans Library, 1991

Synopsis

When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as 'a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action'. She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path. But that way leads to disillusionment and a future as constricted as 'a dark narrow alley with a dead wall at the end'. In a conclusion that is one of the most moving in modern fiction, Isabel makes her final choice.

About this title

Review

"The Portrait of a Lady is entirely successful in giving one the sense of having met somebody far too radiantly good for this world."--Rebecca West

From the Publisher

Isabel Archer has been brought to England from Albany, New York, by her Aunt Touchett to extend her education, possibly to marry well.

Isabel, proud and independent, has other ideas. She has no desire to marry and wishes to create her own future, rather than finding it as a wife. Consequently she refuses two very eligible suitors: Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood, who has followed her to Europe from America.

When her uncle Lord Touchett dies, leaving Isabel a fortune, he unwittingly does her a great disservice, for on a visit to Italy she is introduced by Madame Merle to Gilbert Osmond. Osmond is a charming but worthless dilettante who sees Isabel as a beautiful prize, a mother for his daughter Pansy, and a source of easily attained wealth. From his cruel cynicism comes Isabel's tragic disillusionment.

In his exquisitely crafted and deeply ironic novel, Henry James depicts the heart and soul of a young woman whose destiny is taken from her own hands.

Edition details

• Publisher: Everymans Library
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0679405623
• ISBN 13: 9780679405627
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 672