The Portrait of a Lady

Spirited, beautiful young American Isabel Archer journeys to Europe to, in modern terms, "find herself." But what she finds there may prove to be her undoing, especially when an infinitely sophisticated lady plots against her.

Henry James (1843–1916) spent his early life in America but often traveled with his celebrated family to Europe. After briefly attending Harvard, he began to contribute both criticism and tales to magazines. Later, he visited Europe and beganRoderick Hudson. Late in 1875, he settled in Paris, where he met Turgenev, Flaubert, and Zola and wroteThe American. In 1876, he moved to London, where two years later he achieved international fame withDaisy Miller. His other famous works include The Portrait of a Lady (1881),The Princess Casamassma (1886), The Wings of the Dove (1902), and The Golden Bowl (1904). In 1915, a few months before his death, he became a British subject.

Regina Barreca, professor of English literature and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut, has edited numerous books, includingMake Mine a Double, The Signet Book of American Humor, and Don’t Tell Mama: The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing. She has written nine books, includingBabes in Boyland, It's Not That I’m Bitter, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Linesand Conquered the World and They Used to Call Me Snow White. . . But I Drifted. She writes a weekly column for the Hartford Courantwhich is distributed nationally, and also writes regularly for such publications as the New York Times,Cosmopolitan, Psychology Today, the Chronicle of Higher Education,and the Huffington Post and has appeared, often as a repeat guest, on 20/20,48 Hours, and Today.

Colm Toibin’s acclaimed novels include The South (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of theIrish Times/Aer Lingus First Fiction Award), The Blackwater Lightship (shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize and the Man Booker Prize),The Master (Dublin IMPAC Prize; the Prix du Meilleur Livre; the LA Times Novel of the Year), Brooklyn (Costa Novel of the Year),Nora Webster, and The Testament of Mary. His nonfiction works includeAll a Novelist Needs: Essays on Henry James, Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border, andThe Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe. Editor of The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction, he is a regular contributor to theNew York Review of Books and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books.