The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is a novel by Henry James. Isabel Archer, a young American who values her freedom above all, inherits a fortune in England and, among many suitors, chooses the wrong man. It is often considered James's masterpiece of his early period.
The story
Brought to England by her aunt, Isabel Archer refuses two proposals, from the English Lord Warburton and the American Caspar Goodwood, determined to choose her own life. Her dying cousin Ralph Touchett persuades his father to leave her a fortune, so that she may be free.
In Italy, the charming Madame Merle introduces her to Gilbert Osmond, an American collector of refined taste. Isabel marries him, and discovers too late that she has been the victim of a plan.
Writing
James wrote the novel in 1880–1881, partly in Florence and Venice. It was serialised at the same time in Macmillan's Magazine in Britain and The Atlantic Monthly in America, then published in three volumes in 1881.
He revised it heavily for the New York Edition of his works in 1908, adding a preface in which he described how the novel grew from the idea of a single character, 'a certain young woman affronting her destiny'.
The ending
The novel's open ending, in which Isabel returns to Rome after Ralph's death, puzzled many readers. James explained that a book should not try to tell everything.
The novel was adapted for television by the BBC in 1968, and Jane Campion filmed it in 1996, with Nicole Kidman as Isabel.
Anecdotes
A house of fiction
In his preface of 1908, James compared the novel to a 'house of fiction' with countless windows, each looking out on the same scene from a different point of view.
Written in Venice
James wrote parts of the novel in a room on the Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice, looking out over the lagoon, and later recalled being distracted by the beauty of the view.
Frequently asked questions
Whom does Isabel Archer marry?
Gilbert Osmond, an American dilettante living in Florence, whom she believes to be noble and disinterested.
Who is Madame Merle?
A brilliant and worldly woman who arranges Isabel's marriage to Osmond for reasons of her own.
When was The Portrait of a Lady published?
In 1881, after appearing as a serial in Britain and the United States in 1880–1881.