The Portrait of a Lady : Volume I (Illustrated)

Moderate scuffing and fading to the covers. Minor soiling and staining. Extremities scuffed and bumped, with the cloth frayed and worn at the corners and tips of the spine. Interior hinges weak but intact. Text block solid, with a few minor scattered stains and general toning. May not contain Access Codes or Supplements. Firrst American edition, 2d-5th issue. Clipping of Henry James mounted on blank leave oppostie title page.

According to BAL, the second-firth issues cannot be distinguished, but the publisher's record document these printings in First Edition in America. By Books Alone Published: Ships from the UK. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. Better World Books Ltd Condition: No dust jacket as issued. First Edition; First Printing. Leather bound, Accented in 22kt gold. Printed on archival paper with gilded edges. The endsheets are of moire fabric with a silk ribbon page marker.

Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints. This book is in full leather with hubbed spines. Rare Book Cellar Published: Bound In full leather with hubbed spines. Owner pressed in stamp. Rare Book Cellar Edition: Book accented in 22kt gold. Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints to ensure the highest quality binding. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Portrait of a Lady: These three volumes are clean, tight, square with good corners and unmarked.

They are rubbed at the edges and ends of the spine. They have tan marbled end papers and , , , bright, clear pages in a one-quarter binding with brown leather on the spines. The blank end papers are toned. The spines have four raised bands with gilt designs and titles in the panels.

Each has a silk bookmark. The boards are covered in green marbled paper. Russell Books Ltd Condition: Three volumes, small 8vo. Later bookplate of John Waern Hill in volume I. Original pale orange limp cloth, mild rubbing otherwise very good. From the first collected edition of James, the secondary binding. Bow Windows Bookshop Published: Does she just want to exert her power over her? The scene in which Isabel sees both in her home, conspiring evident from their attitudes is so powerful James refers to it a couple of times.

The Themes Does money corrupt? What do you really know about someone before you marry? What is the true nature of freedom? All these themes — and many others — come across naturally, and never feel shoe-horned into the story. The book begins and ends in the same setting. And there are some ingenious sections in the middle, where time has passed and the reader discovers major information through conversations.

Like any great writer, James knows what to leave out. He makes you do work to fill in the pieces, but the novel becomes more memorable because of that. And he bridges the Victorian and Modern eras, in the same way that Beethoven bridges the Classical and Romantic eras. Chapter 42 After a huge blowup with Osmond, Isabel stays up all night, staring into the fireplace, and ponders her life, thinking: Besides an evocative score and a brilliant performance by Barbara Hershey as Madame Merle and a suitably slimy one by John Malkovich basically changing costumes from his Dangerous Liaisons character , it was dreadfully dull.

Maybe it's hard to get that psychological complexity onscreen? James is The Master. Can't wait to try! View all 70 comments. Sep 10, Lizzy rated it it was amazing Shelves: For my dear friend Jeffrey Keeten: I would not have read it if it were not for you.

Since I finished this novel a few days ago, I could not seem to stop thinking about it as I tried to organize my feelings. That I was mesmerized by it, there is no doubt. So much that the search for its understanding has occupied practically all my free moments. And to fully grasp it I could not do without Henry James masterful help, so forgive me if For my dear friend Jeffrey Keeten: And to fully grasp it I could not do without Henry James masterful help, so forgive me if you find I quote him too often.

Oh, but this is a work in progress, so forgive me again for any inaccuracy or inconsistency. The complexity of Isabel Archer "Millions of presumptuous girls, intelligent or not intelligent, daily affront their destiny, and what is it open to their destiny to be, at the most, that we should make an ado about it? The novel is of its very nature an ado, an ado about something, and the larger the form it takes the greater of course the ado. Therefore, consciously, that was what one was in for—for positively organising an ado about Isabel Archer.

I loved getting into Isabel's conflicted mind, her doubts and her confidence, her wishes and her choices. I went even further and identified thoroughly with Isabel Archer. I could relate to her conflicted mind, her dreams and ultimate choices.

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She was a pleasure to know, because she is so extraordinarily complex, complex in a way that fictional people seldom are. From the first we learn how Isabel valued her freedom, in a dialogue with her cousin Ralph: Yes; she likes to take people up Touchett , her aunt, brings Isabel to Europe but is indifferent and unfeeling; Ralph is initially amused by her and helps her to inherit a fortune, only to guarantee her choices and the freedom to follow them he probably is the only one that thoroughly loved Isabel ; Madam Merle manages her meeting with Osmond and makes sure they end up married; Osmond thinks of her as one more item for his collection; Mr.

Goodwood is persistent and never loses interest in her life coming back again and again to see how she is , but seems to offer nothing more; Lord Warburton is a fair aristocratic friend to Isabel, but was he truly in love with her or merely looking for a trophy wife? So everyone, including the reader, look upon her, judge her decisions and contemplate as she takes each of her fateful steps into her destiny. Oh, there is much more about Isabel, and I hope I will be able to know her better once I am finished.

Sometimes, I dreamed that I was walking down the corridor on my home and discovered a door I had never realized existed; deciding to explore I would open it and it led me to a new, endless row of rooms, all grand with high windows and sunny, overlooking majestic gardens that I had never observed existed before.

As I opened each door amazing new discoveries were revealed to me. My feelings were of exuberance, of happiness to have discovered so much beauty inside my home. But there was a variation to these recurrent dreams, or worst, there were also nightmares. In these I also discovered new places never visited before, however they would be dark and looked nowhere. As a result of this oppressive atmosphere I used to feel like I was in an endless prison inside my own home. I rejoiced in the first and feared to revisit those nightmares. So, when I started reading The Portrait of a Lady , it was fascinating to read how Henry James uses symbolic or metaphorical architectural spaces and places to tell us about Isabel Archer and her life.

This was something I knew and it remitted directly to my dreams and my deepest self. She was not accustomed indeed to keep it behind bolts; and at important moments, when she would have been thankful to make use of her judgement alone, she paid the penalty of having given undue encouragement to the faculty of seeing without judging. Between those four walls she had lived ever since; they were to surround her for the rest of her life.

It was the house of darkness, the house of dumbness, the house of suffocation. Gardencourt had been her starting-point, and to those muffled chambers it was at least a temporary solution to return. She had gone forth in her strength; she would come back in her weakness, and if the place had been a rest to her before, it would be a sanctuary now. For better or for worse. But it comes over me every now and then that I can never be happy in any extraordinary way; not by turning away, by separating myself.

From the usual chances and dangers, from what most people know and suffer. Or was it all inevitable to some degree? It seems that Isabel Archer's life was to some extend inescapable and this fact was not totally unknown to her.

The Portrait of a Lady

However, she thoroughly recongnizes how misguided she had been in her choice of husband. Was the fault in himself, or only in the deep mistrust she had conceived for him? This mistrust was now the clearest result of their short married life; a gulf had opened between them over which they looked at each other with eyes that were on either side a declaration of the deception suffered. But despite all her efforts to conceal her misery, she cannot camouflage it from Ralph and Caspar: For all his dryness, however, he had more to say.

She pretends to be happy; that was what she undertook to be; and I thought I should like to see for myself what it amounts to. But she is never to be pitied, she always stands upright despite doomed adversity. Yes, I suspect there is a sense of inevitability what choices did she have, where her other suitors conductive of real happiness? But she is far from it, she still has choices. This is what James has achieved with this work; that liberty is not only an ideal but a responsibility too. Though the reader may not approve of all her choices at the end, keeping in mind the betrayal of trust brought about by Madam Merle and Osmond, they were all freely taken or the result of her own will.

A will which comes not merely from the limitations imposed by society, but by a newfound maturity, result of all her suffering, and above all from the vow to remain true to oneself. He even skips years, and it only adds to its enjoyment. If you want to live along with Isabel Archer, and I felt like I did, is to be conquered by infinite possibilities. Here we are not mere spectator or bystanders but may live everything along with her, if we want to. It is a hard reading that requires effort, but if we invest in it we can grasp the possibilities the whole world that exists beneath the surface of his work.

Her ultimate choice Isabel falls for Gilbert Osmond, to my mind, partly because he does not mindlessly adore her, does not fawn over her. He takes his time in the courtship, he with the help of Madame Merle has a clear strategy and it works. He is mysterious, indolent; and there is the hint of a darker side. He appears to be tired of everything, simply bored, so Isabel feels like for once she is helping somebody. That her inheritance has a meaning, a destiny.

She seems to feel recompensated and fulfilled. A year ago you valued your liberty beyond everything. You wanted only to see life. Her ultimate choice is whether or not to return to Osmond after she goes to Gardencourt to visit her dying cousin. Again Henry James gifts us with a superb image that could not translate better the pervading dread of what she is about to do: She lived from day to day, postponing, closing her eyes, trying not to think.

She knew she must decide, but she decided nothing; her coming itself had not been a decision. On that occasion she had simply started. In an extraordinarily short time—for the distance was considerable—she had moved through the darkness for she saw nothing and reached the door. Here only she paused. She looked all about her; she listened a little; then she put her hand on the latch. She had not known where to turn; but she knew now. There was a very straight path.

I would like to imagine Osmond would be surprised by her when she gets back to Rome, and that she would be able to change her standing. Their roles perhaps altered. Although there should certainly be more anguish ahead of her, given what she is going back to, I imagine there is always the possibility of happiness. View all 42 comments. Mar 24, Petra Eggs rated it it was ok Shelves: I've been reading a lot of Anthony Trollope's books recently and the stories, characters and writing is so much superior to this that I just can't get into it.

I finished the book, finally. It was a chore. I did not find James' portrayal of a woman's personality convincing. That even though she had the financial power which was the reason why her husband had married her, she would still allow herself to be physi I've been reading a lot of Anthony Trollope's books recently and the stories, characters and writing is so much superior to this that I just can't get into it. That even though she had the financial power which was the reason why her husband had married her, she would still allow herself to be physically and emotionally abused and humiliated.

It seemed to be a very conventional view of a woman, that eventually she would give in to her Lord and Master. A woman with an ounce of independence she did have an ounce, maybe even two at the beginning would not be the sad creature she was at the end. Marriages were made in light of money and status in those times, in this book, she had both, he had neither, there had to be some sort of mental shift that that would allow her to pretend that these were her husband's and she was in the lower and grateful position.

But James didn't write it, so 'Portrait' really didn't make sense. None of the characters, evil, good or milk-water gained my sympathy. Pansy, the daughter, nearly did, but I wanted to shake her and say 'how could you have lived all these years and not suspected who your mother is? Your father has palmed you off on the nuns all these years, what's with this unquestioning obedience? Its your step-mother has the money, not him, she's the one who can help you, would help you,not your daddy who just wants you to achieve his own social-climbing ambitions'.

I just don't see James as a man who understood women enough to write about them from any but a man's perspective. I watched the Nichole Kidman film of the book and although Kidman did her best to flesh out the character she was no more rounded than in the book. And Poppy's submissiveness and ignorance were even more unbelievable. Obviously, to James, the main characteristic he associated with women and interpreted thusly by the director, was submissiveness. Henry James may have deserved his reputation as a Grand Old Man of American letters, but not through this book, it just didn't do it for me.

View all 37 comments. I had many wonderful moments while reading this book, moments when the writing halted the reading, when I had to pause and admire and wonder. Moments when the book seemed to speak to my own experience as if it were written expressly for the girl who was me at twenty-two, causing me to wonder how Henry James could have guessed so well the presumptuous ideas I had about life and love at that early stage. All of that is very personal, of course, and not necessarily of interest to other readers, but I had many wonderful moments while reading this book, moments when the writing halted the reading, when I had to pause and admire and wonder.

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All of that is very personal, of course, and not necessarily of interest to other readers, but there were other moments in my reading of The Portrait of a Lady that better merit mention in a review. I had read this book before, about twenty years ago, so although I knew the bare bones of the story, I remembered few of the details. And yet there was something about the lead-up to that scene that caught my attention this time: Out of the silence comes the sound of someone playing the piano. Wonderingly, Isabel makes her way toward the source of the harmony.

Those six words were like a bell ringing in my mind. I felt a sharpening of interest, an awareness of how pivotal this moment would be in the story. There was another scene later in the book when I had a similar feeling of change about to happen: Isabel sits up late one night in Rome pondering a difficult decision, indeed pondering all the decisions in her life so far. The reader watches with her and wonders how she will act. And wonders again when she finally does. There are other major shifts in the narrative but none stood out for me quite the way those two did.

As a reader I appreciated both strategies: It was all very wonderful. I've decided they can be the joint highlight - they have a lot of wonderfulness in common. He writes that he has purposely piled brick upon brick for our benefit, carefully including the details that will enable us to grasp the totality of his creation.

And among those details, he mentions two in particular, keystones in the building of the story as it were. The first is the piano scene I described earlier. He speaks of the rare chemistry of that scene in which Isabel recognizes that a huge change is about to happen in her life. I felt really validated as a reader to have been aware in advance of the significance of what I was about to read, and so I wasn't surprised when his other pivotal scene turned out to be the one where Isabel sits up late into the Roman night, pondering her decisions.

This is the sixteenth Henry James book I've read in six months. More confirmation of that possibility came when he began to discuss the shape of this novel. He continues to speak in terms of bricks and architecture and proportions, and he says that of all his novels, 'The Portrait' is the best proportioned with the exception of a novel he was to write twenty-two years later: This rib is made from two minor but key characters, Henrietta Stackpole and Maria Gostrey.

Both seem extraneous to each story at first glance yet both are central to the architecture of their particular story. I remember noting that Maria Gostrey was the thread that allowed me to find my way through the labyrinth that was 'The Ambassadors' so it was wonderful to hear Henry James confirm that, and underline the links between the two books as well.

I was also reminded that I had begun to look at his books in terms of architecture while reading The Wings of the Dove , so I really appreciated his architectural metaphors. In fact the appendix left me amazed and wondering at every turn. I'd like to quote the whole thing here because it is really worth reading - and it provided me with huge insights into some Gerald Murnane books I've puzzled over in the past, The Plains and Inland , and offered a strong desire to read his Million Windows: The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million - a number of possible windows not to be reckoned, rather; every one of which has been pierced, or is still pierceable, in its vast front, by the need of the individual vision and by the pressure of the individual will.

These apertures, of dissimilar shape and size, hang so, all together, over the human scene that we might have expected of them a greater sameness of report than we find. They are but windows at the best, mere holes in a dead wall, disconnected, perched aloft; they are not hinged doors opening straight upon life. But they have this mark of their own that at each of them stands a figure with a pair of eyes, or at least with a field-glass, which forms, again and again, for observation, a unique instrument, insuring to the person making use of it an impression distinct from every other.

He and his neighbors are watching the same show, but one seeing more where the other sees less, one seeing black where the other sees white, one seeing big where the other sees small, one seeing coarse where the other sees fine. But in every ending there are beginnings - 'The Portrait' has led me to another book: I do love when one book leads to another!

View all 84 comments. Sep 27, Paul Bryant rated it liked it Shelves: Ugh, ech, the elitism that breeds in readers! We think we're such nicey cosy bookworms and wouldn't harm a fly but we seethe, we do. Of course, readers of books just naturally look down on those who don't read at all. In fact they try not to think of those people nine tenths of the human race I suppose, but a tenth of the human race is still a big number because it makes them shudder.

How lovely it would be to go riding in a carriage through some dreadful council estate flinging free copies o Ugh, ech, the elitism that breeds in readers! How lovely it would be to go riding in a carriage through some dreadful council estate flinging free copies of Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway right and left although Ulysses might catch some of those urchins a hefty blow on the temple which might cause a shift in their brain landscape and evoke a sudden craving for modernist novels, like when people are struck by a bus and wake up talking in a French accent, that can happen.

So that's one obvious kind of reader elitism.

But then, some readers think that what the majority of readers actually read is appalling Hungervinciboneskitehelpslappery Twilit Shades of Pottery doo dah. It's not that you read, it's what you read. And then, amongst those elevated readers, some literary authors are considered greater than some others why are you wasting your time with William Gaddis when you could be knee-deep in Proust, dwarling?

I simply don't understand it. And then, even when you scale the heights and find yourself munching down some Henry James like he was the last well-done steak with Chateau Lafleur you were going to get before your solo trek no huskies to the south pole, you still get it - oh dwarling, why are you still dillydallying in the Middle Period when you still haven't read The Golden Bowl you naughty Jamesian you!

Thus it is that I say - oh no, not The Portrait of a Lady.

It is one of James's most popular long novels and is regarded by critics as one of his finest. The Portrait of a Lady is the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who, in "confronting her destiny", finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becom The Portrait of a lady, Henry James The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in —81 and then as a book in She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates.

Like many of James's novels, it is set in Europe, mostly England and Italy. Generally regarded as the masterpiece of James's early period, this novel reflects James's continuing interest in the differences between the New World and the Old, often to the detriment of the former. It also treats in a profound way the themes of personal freedom, responsibility, and betrayal. Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady is considered to be one of the first American novels to make full use of social and psychological realism as European authors - such as Flaubert, Balzac and George Eliot - were already practicing in their works.

Considered to be his biggest accomplishment along with The Ambassadors , Portrait added Isabel Archer to the company of great fictional heroines - as the likes of Elizabeth Bennet, Becky Sharp and Jane Eyre - and, in a century marked by unsatisfied bour Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady is considered to be one of the first American novels to make full use of social and psychological realism as European authors - such as Flaubert, Balzac and George Eliot - were already practicing in their works.

Collecting Portrait Of a Lady by James, Henry - First edition identification guide

Considered to be his biggest accomplishment along with The Ambassadors , Portrait added Isabel Archer to the company of great fictional heroines - as the likes of Elizabeth Bennet, Becky Sharp and Jane Eyre - and, in a century marked by unsatisfied bourgeois wives and adultery in fiction - Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina come to mind -, it was a breath of fresh air to accompany and delve into James' protagonist's thoughts and inner feelings.

Starting with a very slow pace, the narrative contains long and elaborate descriptions. It feels James is painting a richly detailed picture for every scene. As we arrive in Gardencourt - the Touchett's English country estate where our story opens and closes -, we encounter Mr. Touchett, his son Ralph and a family friend called Lord Warburton. Among other things, they discuss how Mrs. Isabel is a young woman, from Albany, New York, who accepts her aunt's offer to initially stay with her in Gardencourt and then later travel through the continent, eager to explore and be enriched by the places she's never been before and experience life at its fullest.

Upon her arrival, we begin to learn what her ideals and plans are, along with her hopes and dreams. Since the beginning, her cousin Ralph seems to have been as curious as we were to see what Isabel would make of her life. In a way, we almost could say Ralph was conducting an experiment: Isabel had an independent mind, she was emotionally and psychologically self-sufficient - didn't seem inclined to get married for the time being, which was different for a girl of her age at the time.

She was thirsty for knowledge first and foremost: She was probably bound to eventually getting married. Her cousin, then, arranged it and she became financially independent as well. Certain that he was doing Isabel a good deed, Ralph convinced his father - who was very fond of Isabel - at his deathbed to leave her an impressive amount of money. Now she had all that was necessary to decide her destiny without any barriers or anyone to hold her back. The experiment was on.

After traveling for over a year, the now wealthy Isabel Archer is in Florence, where her aunt lives. A friend she greatly admired, Madame Merle - Mrs. Touchett's close friend who Isabel got acquainted with some time after she arrived in Gardencourt - skillfully introduces her to Gilbert Osmond: Isabel is very impressed with his refinement and intelligence and thinks of him as having a beautiful mind.

Despite her family and friends complaints about this relationship, Isabel - after having declined two previous suitors - accepts Osmond's marriage proposal. The story then jumps in time and there's a narrative shift: Through their story, we still have glimpses of Isabel's life and we learn that she's been now married for two years and that she lost a son who died six months after his birth. Isabel and her husband seems to disagree about everything and we learn she's unhappy. Henry James, who once conducted a very slow paced - almost contemplative - narrative, gradually started to accelerate it, adding drama and a sense of urgency to his words.

Right after an unsettling argument with Osmond one evening, Isabel, now feeling more distraught than ever, starts pondering and analyzing the many circumstances she finds herself in. The author immerses us in a deeply personal and intensely psychological account of her thoughts and emotions.

Among the things Isabel reflected upon for a long time were the conclusion that her husband must hate her and the realization that Osmond had gained total control of her - the once independent and strong witted woman was now a subjugated spirit; the woman who once seemed to be against doing what was expected of her was now conforming to her husband's decisions. This only comes to deteriorate even more her relationship with Gilbert.

1. First edition identification and notes.
2. John Lavery Portrait Lady Illustration Book Stock Photo (Edit Now) - Shutterstock?
3. The Private Parts of Women.
4. Northhanger Abbey - Persuasion.
5. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

Now, fully aware of the situation she was put in through manipulations and schemes, Isabel is faced with a big decision: Showing the old Isabel may still be somewhere locked inside of herself, she confronts her husband and leaves to be with her cousin. The Portrait of a Lady , through its length, presents a number of opposites, but the most striking ones are the battles between freedom vs. In the book's final moments, we witness that Isabel is offered a way to go back to where and to whom she was when she first came to Europe: She could once again explore life and fill herself with hopes - but declined the opportunity: With a much talked about conclusion that has both fascinated and infuriated - another battle of opposites?

It's disturbing to watch an unhappily married woman with an opportunity to leave it all behind - and the means to do it - simply not choosing freedom. Did Osmond finally accomplish to shatter her spirit? Another theory is that maybe marriage was an unbreakable vow and she felt she had a moral duty to her husband. Or was she trying to be protective of Pansy - who was mirroring Isabel's unhappiness and was another example of a woman who seemed to think that she was obliged to follow other's decisions even if it made her unhappy - and determined to stand by her side and not let the same happen to her step daughter?

James has been known for structuring his novels with a series of circles surrounding a center. With that in mind, a hopeful interpretation of the book's ending is that, in order to complete that circle, Isabel must return to her husband, properly end her marriage so she could once again be able to start anew and free her spirit once and for all. View all 29 comments.

Jan 07, James rated it liked it Shelves: I adore Henry James and found great enjoyment in his literary works when I began reading him in my freshmen year at college. As an English major, I was exposed to many different authors, but I felt a strong connection with him and this literary period.

American realistic works spoke to me above any of the other "classic" books I had been reading. As a result, I chose Henry James as the primary focus of an independent study course I'd taken in my senior year. I read 6 or 7 of his books during those 3 months and am going back now to provide quick reviews, as not everyone finds him as enjoyable as I do. I also don't want to bore everyone with a lengthy review on how to interpret him or his books.

The Portrait of a Lady tells the story of a young woman who years to have her own life and make her own mark on the world. She doesn't want to be contained by marriage or the structure in place at the time in the late 19th century. She has different characteristics coming from American, English and continental European female archetypes. She has strong moral and ethical values. She knows who she is, yet she does not know all. As she moves through life, she makes choices that are not easy for her to execute.

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