The Portrait of a Lady is arguably Henry James' most appealing and accessible novel. The introduction to this volume of specially written essays situates the novel in its cultural and historical context and discusses the important revisions that James later made to the text. The essays that follow address the novel's place in the tradition of modern narrative, its relation to popular women's fiction on the question of marriage, the influence of Henry James' brother William, and the character of the heroine seen from a psychoanalytic point of view.
Reviews
"The Portrait presented in this important collection serves as a powerful reminder of our urgent need to rethink a humanist tradition that achieves its moral coherence at such a high cost to those--here, specifically, women and gay men--whose experience and desires it de-legitimates." The Henry James Review
