Isabel Archer, 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 a virtuosity that suggests dazzling imaginative powers. And the scene painting-in England and Italy-provides a continuous visual pleasure while always remaining crucial to the larger drama. The Portrait of a Lady is the most stunning achievement of Henry James's early period-in the 1860s and '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. A kind of delight at the success of this transformation informs every page of this masterpiece. | The Portrait of a Lady by HENRY JAMES, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters