When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. She then finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond, who, beneath his veneer of charm and cultivation, is cruelty itself. A story of intense poignancy, Isabel's tale of love and betrayal still resonates with modern audiences.

About the Author

Henry James (1843-1916), born in New York and eventually settling in England, wrote some twenty novels, many short stories, and a staggering number of letters. Geoffrey Moore was general editor for the works of Henry James in Penguin Classics. He died in 1999. Patricia Crick, one-time scholar of Girton College, Cambridge, is a teacher of modern languages.

In THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Henry James continues his fascination with taking Americans out of their vulgar and moneyed new world environment and placing them in a stuffy but cultured old world, a comparison of which sometimes leads the reader to think that James himself sometimes could not prefer one over the other. In this novel, the transplanted American is wealthy heiress Isabel Archer, a woman who early on is depicted as determined to see the world and experience its myriad flavors. The problem with this is that Isabel is both attracted to and repelled by those exotic flavors. She is described in terms that emphasize her virginity and general innocence of soul. When Isabel arrives in England she encounters three suitors, with each one representing one aspect of that which either entices her or annoys her.

The first suitor is Caspar Goodwood, an American who is described as wealthy, handsome, virile, and decent. He would indeed be a fine husband for Isabel, but for one factor. James often depicts Goodwood's appearance in terms that accentuate his virility. Whenever they embrace, James (perhaps leeringly) narrates that Isabel felt his male hardness press in. Goodwood simply cannot touch Isabel without that concommitant reaction which drives Isabel away.

The second suitor is Lord Warburton, a wealthy and titled Englishman who also proposes to Isabel. He is simply full of positive qualities that most women would find flattering, but for one which is hardly his fault. Isabel assumes that if they marry, she would simply merge into the unnoticed background that forms the ongoing basis of the life of the wife of a titled lord. So she rejects him as well.

The third suitor is Gilbert Osmond, an older American expatriate who charms Isabel into accepting his proposal, despite the many objections of every one of her social circle who complained that in every way Osmond was all the wrong man. So why did she choose him? To begin with, her acceptance was no hasty affair. She had known Osmond for years before marrying him. Since he was considerably older than she, she blithely assumed that he would not make the sexual demands that a younger Goodwood might make nor would he be likely to infringe on her personal freedoms of choice when it comes to travel, friends, or life style considerations. Further, Isabel's good friend, Madam Merle, is the only one who praises Osmond and is thus instrumental in assuring her acceptance.

After Isabel's marriage predictably begins to unravel, James uses irony to point out that even well-considered choices may go sour if one ignores the hard facts of reality. We find out that Madam Merle had had a child with Osmond and a match with a wealthy woman would ensure the support of that child. Further, when Isabel rejects the first two suitors she correctly had sized up her initial rejections but in hindsight, those qualities that she saw as fearful were only mildly so, and easily corrected. When Isabel accepts Osmond using her rationale that he would not restrict her life choices, she is woefully wrong. The climax of the novel occurs when, after a few years of marriage, she discovers that her ill cousin Ralph Touchett is dying and wishes to see her. Touchett earlier had given Isabel a vast fortune to make an already wealthy woman even more so, and now when she tells Osmond that she wishes to travel to be by Ralph's side at the end, Osmond proves to be the very quintessence of a Jamesian villain, one who asks for all but gives nothing in return. He refuses her permission by stating: "I think we should accept the consequences of our actions."

The ending of THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY is ambiguous. We do not know if Isabel will remain with Osmond. All that we know for sure is the ironic veracity of Osmond's closing words. Isabel has made her choices; now is the time to decide whether to honor their eminently foreseeable consequences. In PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Henry James says this as well as anyone else has.