The portrait of a lady
(Book - Regular Print)

Includes bibliographical references (pages xxxviv-xlii ; 686-718) and index.

This book is the most stunning achievement of Henry James' early period- in the 1860s & 70s when he was transforming himself from a talented young American into a resident of Europe, a citizen of the world, and one of the greatest novelists of modern times. Isabel Archer, the "lady" of the title, a beautiful, intelligent, and headstrong American girl newly endowed with wealth and embarked in Europe on a treacherous journey to self-knowledge, is delineated with a magnificence that is at once casual and tense with force and insight. The characters with whom she is entangled- the good man and the evil one, between whom she wavers, and the mysterious witchlike woman with whom she must do battle- are each rendered with dazzling imaginative powers. James wrote as well many times again, but he never wrote better than he did in this novel, and nowhere else is the sheer, simple vigor of his genius more completely displayed. -- Publisher description

940L,Lexile

Accelerated Reader AR,UG,9.6,44,76006.