The Portrait of a Lady

Transplanted to Europe from her native America, Isabel Archer has candour, beauty, intelligence, an independent spirit and a marked enthusiasm for life. An unexpected inheritance apparently gives her freedom, but despite her natural advantages she makes one error of judgement and the result is genuinely tragic.

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With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Reading.


Transplanted to Europe from her native America, Isabel Archer has candour, beauty, intelligence, an independent spirit and a marked enthusiasm for life. An unexpected inheritance apparently gives her freedom, but despite all her natural advantages she makes one disastrous error of judgement and the result is genuinely tragic. Her tale, told with James’ inimitable poise, is of the widest relevance.


‘The phase when his (Henry James’) genius functioned with the freest and fullest vitality is represented by The Portrait of a Lady’.
(F.R. LEAVIS)