Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady is widely held to be the outstanding work of Henry James's early period, and among the finest novels of his entire career.When the eccentric Mrs. Touchett takes up her charming American niece, Isabel Archer, and returns with her to England, her husband and son Ralph are first mystified, then bemused. Soon, however, they are smitten, as also is their aristocratic neighbor, Lord Warburton. Isabel refuses his proposal, convinced that marriage would constrain her independence. She travels to Europe, inherits a fortune, and makes a catastrophic marriage-one engineered by a scheming expatriate American and his mistress.Perfect for readers who appreciate psychological depth and Victorian social drama, The Portrait of a Lady remains one of the great novels of the 19th century, remarkable for its penetrating study of a young woman's consciousness and her struggle for autonomy in a world designed to constrain her.