New Essays on 'The Portrait of a Lady'

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511624513

The Portrait of a Lady is arguably Henry James's most appealing and accessible novel. The introduction to this volume of specially written essays, first published in 1990, situates the novel in its cultural and historical context: its treatment of a modern woman 'affronting' her destiny, its relation to the contemporary controversy over 'morality' in fiction, its use of an Italian setting, and its late nineteenth century elegiac mood. It also discusses James's revisions of the novel and his late Preface. The essays that follow deal with the place of Portrait in the tradition of modern narrative, its relation to popular women's fiction on the question of marriage, the influence of James's 'family romance' and his brother William, and the character of Isabel Archer seen from a psychoanalytic point of view.

"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

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New Essays on 'The Portrait of a Lady'

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Series Editor's Preface
pp vii-viii

A Note on the Text
pp ix-x

1 - Introduction: The Portrait of a Lady and “Felt Life”
pp 1-32

2 - The Portrait of a Lady and Modern Narrative
pp 33-48

3 - The Fatherless Heroine and the Filial Son: Deep Background for The Portrait of a Lady
pp 49-94

4 - The Portrait of a Lack
pp 95-122

5 - Frail Vessels and Vast Designs: A Psychoanalytic Portrait of Isabel Archer
pp 123-162

Notes on Contributors
pp 163-164

Selected Bibliography
pp 165-166

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