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The Portrait of a Lady is the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who, "affronting her destiny," [1] finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. Like many of James's novels, it is set in Europe, mostly England and Italy.
- Henry James
- Houghton: 520, Macmillan: volume one, 266; volume two, 253; volume three, 248
- 1881
- 29 October 1881 (Houghton), 16 November 1881 (Macmillan)
Mar 22, 2024 · The Portrait of a Lady, novel by Henry James, published in three volumes in 1881. The masterpiece of the first phase of James’s career, the novel is a study of Isabel Archer, a young American woman of great promise who travels to Europe and becomes a victim of her own provincialism. It offers a.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Overview. The Portrait of a Lady, published in 1881, is a novel by Henry James that tells the story of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who travels to Europe and becomes entangled in a complicated web of relationships and personal choices. The novel is often considered one of James’s most important works and is notable for its ...
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Analyzes all of James’s works up to and including The Portrait of a Lady. Tries to show the ways in which James was influenced by Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and the French l’art pour ...
"THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY" was, like "Roderick Hudson," begun in Florence, during three months spent there in the spring of 1879. Like "Roderick" and like "The American," it had been designed for publication in "The Atlantic Monthly," where it began to appear in 1880.
Explanation and Analysis: The Portrait of a Lady takes place primarily in England, Italy, and France, with a brief flashback to the United States. The book is set in the 1870s, just after the American Civil War ended and, due to the post-war economic prosperity, Americans started to become interested in transatlantic travel to Europe.
Henry James was an established author when The Portrait of a Lady was published. The novel was first published serially in 1880 and 1881, appearing in Macmillan's Magazine in England and in Atlantic in the United States. The first book edition was published in 1881. The Portrait of a Lady was widely, and mostly favorably, reviewed.
