The Portrait of a Lady (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry James
- First Published: 1880
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: France or French people, Love or romance, Psychology or psychologists, Nineteenth century, Marriage, England or English people, Italy or Italians, Houses, mansions, or manors
- Locales: France, England, Rome, Italy, Albany, NY
The Portrait of a Lady is James's first unarguably major work. Technically his third novel (though the early Watch and Ward, published in 1871, is by general agreement unworthy of mention), it represents a quantum leap in sophistication and moral complexity over Roderick Hudson and The American.
Thematically continuous with Daisy Miller in that it treats the perils of an innocent American woman abroad, the novel probes the psychology of its heroine, Isabel Archer, to infinitely greater depths than does the earlier novella. The reader first...
[The entire page is 953 words long]
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