The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published in 1881. It is the story of a young female American, Isabel Archer, who inherits a large amount of money, which left her to the Machiavellan schemings of two European expatriates. Like many of James`s novels, it is set mostly in Europe, notably Italy.

Generally regarded as the masterpiece of James's early phase of writing, this novel is archetypal of James's preoccupation with differences between the New World and the Old.

Derivative works

The Portrait of a Lady has been turned into a film in 1996 by New Zealand director Jane Campion, starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich and Barbara Hershey.

External links

• Free eBook of The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 2 at Project Gutenberg