Isabel Archer, one of James's most fully drawn characters, has postponed a marriage in America for a year of travel abroad, only to discover upon her precipitate and ill-considered marriage to an American living in Florence, that it is her need to be independent that makes her marriage a disaster. Gilbert Osmond, an American art collector living in Florence, marries Isabel for the fortune she has inherited from her uncle, treating her like an object d'art which he expects to remain "on the shelf." Madame Serena Merle, his long-time lover, is, like Osmond, an American whose venality and lack of scruples have been encouraged, if not developed, by the European milieu in which they live.

James packs more information into one paragraph than many writers do in an entire chapter. Distanced and formal, he presents psychologically realistic characters whose behavior is a direct outgrowth of their upbringing, their conflicts resulting from the differences between their expectations and the reality of their changed settings. The subordinate characters, Ralph Touchett, Pansy Osmond, her suitor Edward Rosier, American journalist Henrietta Stackpole, Isabel's former suitor Caspar Stackpole, and Lord Warburton, whose love of Isabel leads him to court Pansy, are as fascinating psychologically and as much a product of their own upbringing as is Isabel.

As the setting moves from America to England, Paris, Florence, and Rome, James develops his themes, and as Isabel's life becomes more complex, her increasingly difficult and emotionally affecting choices about her life make her increasingly fascinating to the reader. James's trenchant observations about the relationship between individuals and society and about the effects of one's setting on one's behavior are enhanced by the elegance and density of his prose, making this a novel one must read slowly--and savor. Mary Whipple


Just say no   October 13, 2003
 6 out of 32 found this review helpful

I can only assume the fame of Henry James results from a dearth of candidates for '19thC American novelist'. This is a deadly boring book; worse, it is pointless. There is no message. Just the surface of the lives of idle rich upper-middle-class Yanks. Even though it isn't technically bad, or badly written exactly, there's no point spending many hours reading it. The characters are supposed to be showing great depths of emotion but they are so dry: it is not possible to believe in Isabel Archer as a woman.


New World womanhood suppressed but triumphant   April 1, 2003
 3 out of 5 found this review helpful

Isobel Archer, the cream of American womanhood, makes an unhappy marriage and lives in a fascinating but decadent Italy. Her New World classlessness belies her ease and familiarity among English aristocracy. Isobel's willingness to endure her living despair at her domestic and Europe-bound constraints results from her personal moral values which her North American Puritan background has given her.

Being British myself, I took 'The Portrait of a Lady' more seriously at first than when I reflected hard upon the declining Henry James's own succumbing to Old Europe's temptations by becoming a British subject in 1915, shortly before his death. But its sheer power as a novel stands. A must for Donald Rumsfeld's retirement reading.


A masterpiece of world litterature   October 9, 2002
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

What makes this book a masterpiece is the incredible art of creating characters. The complexity, the nuances and the strength of the characters created can only be compared with stendhal or flauber. James also succeeds in portraying british and american society in the beginning of the century forming a comparison still quite relevant. The language is brilliant and the story beautiful. A must-read.