کتاب The Portrait of a Lady Original Capturing the grandeur of a gracious splendid Europe of wealth and Old World sensibilities this glorious complex novel has become a touchstone for a great writers entire literary achievement From the opening pages when the highspirited American girl Isabel Archer arrives at the English manor Gardencourt Jamess luminous superbly crafted prose creates an atmosphere of intensity expectation and incomparable beauty  Isabel who has been taken abroad by an eccentric aunt to fulfill her potential attracts the passions of a British aristocrat and a brash American as well as the secret adoration of her invalid cousin Ralph Touchett But her vulnerability and innocence lead her not to love but to a fatal entrapment in intrigue deception and betrayal This brilliant interior drama of the forming of a womans consciousness makes The Portrait of a Lady a masterpiece of Jamess middle years