The Portrait of a Lady

the long version

Widely regarded as Henry James’s greatest masterpiece, 'The Portrait of a Lady' features one of the author’s most magnificent heroines; Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American who becomes a victim of her provincialism during her travels in Europe. As the story begins, Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, has turned down two eligible suitors. Her cousin, who is dying of tuberculosis, secretly gives her an inheritance so that she can remain independent and fulfill a grand destiny, but