Roger Luckhurst

This book is the most stunning achievement of Henry James' early period- in the 1860s & 70s when he was transforming himself from a talented young American into a resident of Europe, a citizen of the world, and one of the greatest novelists of modern times. Isabel Archer, the "lady" of the title, a beautiful, intelligent, and headstrong American girl newly endowed with wealth and embarked in Europe on a treacherous journey to self-knowledge, is delineated...