Henry James (1843-1916) was born in Washington Place, New York, but spent most of his adulthood in Europe, settling in England for the last forty years of his life. He wrote twenty novels from 1871-1904. The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is considered the finest of his earlier work. In it, James explores the story of Isabel Archer, a beautiful and spirited young American who is brought from Albany, New York to England by her aunt. Not long after, she inherits a fortune from her uncle, which liberates her to do as she pleases. Doing as she pleases includes seeing the world, turning down two marriage proposals, and accepting a third, which situates her primarily in Italy for the rest of the novel.

Isabel’s journey, enhanced and hampered by friends, relatives, and lovers, illuminate typical Jamesian themes of personal freedom, responsibility, and betrayal. Writing from his own experience as an American expatriate, The Portrait of a Lady reflects James’s deep interest in the differences between the old world and the new, and how expatriates such as Isabel Archer, unhampered by allegiance to any specific nationality and cultural code, develop self-awareness and consciousness.

Reading comprises 200 pages of the novel each week, plus shorter critical material.