The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, serialised in 1880 and 1881 and published as a book in 1881. It was first released as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine, and it is generally taken as the best of James's early work, published at a point when the difference between the New World and the Old was his central subject.

The book follows Isabel Archer, a spirited young American taken to Europe by her aunt, who inherits a large sum of money and with it a kind of freedom she did not expect. Two American expatriates then work to place her inside an arrangement of their own making, and the novel's second half is Isabel coming to understand what she has agreed to.

James sets most of the story in England and Italy, and the contrasting houses, gardens and drawing rooms carry as much meaning as the dialogue. The novel treats personal freedom, responsibility and betrayal directly, which is why it has drawn a long line of criticism and a companion piece: James's earlier novel Roderick Hudson works many of the same questions.