The Portrait of a Lady

''"The Portrait of a Lady" is also the name of a film.

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 1880-1881 and then as a book in 1881. It is the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who "affronts her destiny" and finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. Like many of James' novels, it is set mostly in Europe, notably England and Italy. Generally regarded as the masterpiece of his early phase of writing, this novel reflects James's absorbing interest in the differences between the New World and the Old. It also treats in a profound way the themes of personal freedom, responsibility, betrayal, and sexuality.

Plot summary

Isabel Archer, originally from Albany, New York, visits her rich uncle Daniel Touchett at his estate near London. There she meets her cousin Ralph Touchett, a friendly invalid, and the Touchetts' robust neighbor, Lord Warburton. Isabel later declines Warburton's sudden proposal of marriage. The elder Touchett eventually dies and leaves much of his estate to Isabel after Ralph had urged him to make this bequest.

With her legacy Isabel travels through the Continent and meets an American expatriate, Gilbert Osmond, in Florence. Although Isabel had previously rejected both Warburton and American businessman Caspar Goodwood, she accepts Osmond's marriage proposal. Isabel is unaware that the marriage was actively promoted by the accomplished but untrustworthy Madame Merle, another American expatriate who Isabel had met at the Touchetts' estate.

Isabel and Osmond settle in Rome, and the marriage rapidly sours due to Osmond's overwhelming egotism and lack of genuine affection. Isabel grows fond of Pansy, Osmond's daughter presumably by his first marriage, and wants to grant her wish to marry Ned Rosier, a young art collector. The snobbish Osmond would rather Pansy accept Warburton's gauche proposal of marriage (after he had previously proposed to Isabel).

This leads to even more strain on Isabel's marriage. She learns that Ralph is dying at his estate in England, and prepares to go to him for his final hours. Osmond selfishly opposes her plans to visit Ralph. Meanwhile, Isabel learns from her sister-in-law that Pansy is really the daughter of Madame Merle, who had an adulterous relationship with Osmond for several years.

Isabel confronts Madame Merle, then leaves to comfort the dying Ralph in England, where she remains until his death. Goodwood encounters her at Ralph's estate and begs her to leave Osmond and come away with him. He passionately embraces and kisses her, but Isabel will not consent to his demands. She returns to Osmond in Rome.

Major themes

James' first idea for The Portrait of a Lady was simplicity itself: a young American woman confronting her destiny, whatever it might be. Only then did he begin to form a plot to bring out the character of his central figure. Ironically, that plot became an uncompromising story of the free-spirited Isabel losing her freedom—despite (or because of) suddenly coming into a great deal of money—and getting "ground in the very mill of the conventional." The theme of freedom vs. responsibility runs throughout The Portrait and helps explain Isabel's final decision to return to Osmond.

But that decision is affected by another major theme of the novel: Isabel's sexual fears and diffidence. Although she is eventually shown as capable of deep arousal, she rejects Warburton and Goodwood, two very strong and masculine suitors, in favor of the seemingly less threatening and hopelessly cold Osmond. Although the conventions of 19th century Anglo-American fiction prevented a completely frank treatment of this part of Isabel's character, James still makes it clear that her fate was at least partially shaped by her uneasiness with passionate commitment.

The richness of The Portrait is hardly exhausted by a review of Isabel's character. The novel exhibits a huge panorama of trans-Atlantic life, a far larger canvas than any James had previously painted. This moneyed world appears charming and leisurely but proves to be plagued with treachery, deceit and suffering. It is only through disappointment and loss, James seems to say, that one can grow to complete maturity.

Critical evaluation

With the inevitable exceptions, The Portrait of a Lady has been the subject of critical acclaim since its first publication in the pages of The Atlantic Monthly, and it remains the most popular of James' longer fictions. Contemporary critics recognized that James had pushed the analysis of human consciousness and motivation to new levels, particularly in such passages as the famous Chapter 42, where Isabel meditates deep into the night about her marriage and the trap she seems to have fallen into. James justly celebrated this brilliant and moving account of Isabel's deepest terrors in his preface to the New York Edition version of the novel.

More recent criticism has come at the novel from feminist, sociopolitical and formalist directions, though some critics have demurred at these approaches as somewhat anachronistic for what remains, after all, very much a product of the Victorian era. In particular, Isabel's final return to Osmond has fascinated critics, who have debated whether James sufficiently justifies this seemingly paradoxical rejection of freedom.

The extensive revisions James made for the 1908 New York Edition have generally been accepted as improvements, unlike the disagreement provoked by the changes in other texts, such as The American or Roderick Hudson. The revision of the final scene between Isabel and Goodwood has been especially applauded. As Edward Wagenknecht noted, James "makes it as clear as any modern novelist could make it by using all the four-letter words in the dictionary that ^* has been roused as never before in her life, roused in the true sense perhaps for the first time in her life." James' verbal magic allowed him to both obey and evade the restrictive conventions of his day on the treatment of sexuality in literature.

Derivative works

The Portrait of a Lady was turned into a film in 1996 by New Zealand director Jane Campion, starring Nicole Kidman as Isabel, John Malkovich as Osmond, and Barbara Hershey as Madame Merle. The movie got lukewarm reviews as talky and uninvolving. James might have agreed that the novel does not make for a good visual presentation. As he pointed out in his New York Edition preface, the best "scene" in the book consists of Isabel sitting motionless in a chair. When actor Lawrence Barrett wanted James to turn the novel into a play, he replied that he didn't think it could be done.

In 1968 the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) produced a television mini-series version of The Portrait of a Lady, starring Suzanne Neve as Isabel and Richard Chamberlain as Ralph Touchett.

References

Editions

The Portrait of a Lady: An Authoritative Text, Henry James and the Novel, Reviews and Criticism edited by Robert Bamberg (New York: W.W. Norton & Company 2003) ISBN 0393966461

Literary criticism

The Great Tradition by F. R. Leavis (London: Chatto and Windus 1948)
The Novels of Henry James by Oscar Cargill (New York: Macmillan Co. 1961)
The Novels of Henry James by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1983) ISBN 0804429596
Modern Critical Views: Henry James edited by Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House Publishers 1987) ISBN 0877546967
The Portrait of a Lady: Maiden, Woman and Heroine by Lyall Powers (Boston: Twayne Publishers 1991) ISBN 0805780661
Meaning in Henry James by Millicent Bell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1991) ISBN 0674557638
A Companion to Henry James Studies edited by Daniel Fogel (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1993) ISBN 0313257922
Henry James: A Collection of Critical Essays edited by Ruth Yeazell (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 1994) ISBN 0133809730
The Cambridge Companion to Henry James edited by Jonathan Freedman (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1998) ISBN 0521499240

External links

1881 books | Works of Henry James

Porträt einer Lady | ある貴婦人の肖像 | Portret damy

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