The Portrait Of A Lady (James Henry) ; Everyman, 1991

Described by F. R. Leavis as one of the two most brilliant novels in the language, The Portrait of a Lady marks the evolution of Henry James from talented American writer to world-class novelist. The 'lady' of the title is Isabel Archer, a beautiful, intelligent and headstrong American heiress embarked on a treacherous journey to self-knowledge amid the ravishingly rendered landscapes of England and Italy. But it is the characters she encounters who make the story so masterly: the good Lord Warburton and the evil Gilbert Osmond, between whom she hesitates, her candid American friends, and above all the witch-like Madame Merle with whom she does battle for her soul. All are magnificently drawn, and none more so than Isabel herself, who belongs with Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina among the supreme creations of European fiction. James wrote many more masterpieces but he never surpassed the display of sheer genius we find in The Portrait of a Lady.

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