> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 14 February 2023
  • ISBN: 9780143137320
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 672
  • RRP: $54.99

The Portrait of a Lady




Henry James's beloved masterpiece, now in a beautiful hardcover edition featuring James's groundbreaking essay "The Art of Fiction," with a foreword by acclaimed novelist Brandon Taylor
 
A Penguin Vitae Edition

Henry James's beloved masterpiece, now in a beautiful hardcover edition featuring James's groundbreaking essay "The Art of Fiction," with a foreword by acclaimed novelist Brandon Taylor

A Penguin Vitae Edition

The Portrait of a Lady is regarded by many as Henry James's finest work, and a lucid tragedy exploring the distance between money and happiness. 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 enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond. Charming and cultivated, Osmond sees Isabel as a rich prize waiting to be taken. Beneath his veneer of civilized behavior, Isabel discovers cruelty and a stifling darkness. In this portrait of a "young woman affronting her destiny," Henry James created one of his most magnificent heroines, and a story of intense poignancy.

  • Published: 14 February 2023
  • ISBN: 9780143137320
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 672
  • RRP: $54.99

Other books in the series

On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

About the author

Henry James

Henry James was born on 15th April 1843 in Washington Place, New York to a wealthy and intellectual family and as a youth travelled between Europe and America and studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn. He briefly and unsuccessfully studied law at Harvard but decided he preferred reading and writing fiction to studying law. His first novel, Watch and Ward, was published in 1871 after first appearing serially in Atlantic Monthly. After a brief period in Paris, James moved first to London and then later to Rye in Sussex. He became a British citizen in 1915 to declare his loyalty to his adopted country as well as to protest against America's refusal to enter the war on behalf of Britain. Henry James was a prolific writer and critic and from around 1875 until his death he maintained a strenuous schedule of publications in a variety of genres: novels, short story collections, literary criticism, travel writing, biography and autobiography. He died in 1916.

Also by Henry James

See all