Henry James' novel The Portrait of a Lady was first made available as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and also in Macmillan's Magazine in the years 1880-1881 before being printed as a book in that same year. It is quite possibly one of James' most well-known long novels and is hailed by critics as one of his best works to date. The Portrait of Lady Volume II starts off in Rome where Isabel is seen rejecting Lord Warburton in the opening chapters while also being chased by Gilbert Osmond, the American expatriate she meets in the first volume of the novel. The book takes place in Europe, primarily in England and Italy, like the majority of James's works. The sequel majorly focuses on Isabel's life after her marriage to Gilbert Osmond and explores her relationship with Osmond's apparent daughter from his first marriage, Pansy. The novel gives the readers an open ending where they are free to interpret whether Isabel chooses to stay by Osmond's side in her loveless and abusive marriage or whether she rescues Pansy and leaves Osmond along with her. Isabel's tale of love and betrayal still touches audiences today because of its extreme poignancy.
Henry James OM was an American-born British author born in New York City on 15 April 1843. He is recognized as a crucial figure in the transition from literary realism to literary modernism. Henry James, Sr., an investor, and banker in Albany, was his father. Henry James was medically unfit in 1861 to fight in the American Civil War. For The Nation and Atlantic Monthly, he produced both fiction and nonfiction writing. Later, in 1878, Watch and Ward was published as a book. He left for Paris in 1875 and arrived in London in 1876. The Portrait of a Lady (1878), was released in 1881. He relocated to Sussex in 1897-1898, where he wrote The Turn of the Screw. He wrote The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl between 1902 and 1904. He received the Order of Merit in 1915 and became a citizen of Great Britain. His memoirs A Small Boy and Others and Notes of a Son and Brother were both published in 1913. He received the Order of Merit in 1915 and became a citizen of Great Britain. He was cremated after passing away on February 28, 1916, in Chelsea, London.
