The Portrait of a Lady

Three men take tea on the lawn of an English country house: old Mr. Touchett, his invalid son Ralph, and their guest Lord Warburton. Mrs. Touchett has cabled that she is bringing a niece from America. The niece arrives.

James gives us the direct account of Isabel's character: her imagination, her errors, her American idea of freedom, and her tendency to mistake her vision of the world for the world itself.

Ralph shows Isabel the estate. Lord Warburton's position — a liberal radical who owns an ancient title — is explored. Isabel is charmed and confused by England.

Lord Warburton proposes to Isabel. She asks for time and eventually refuses, to Warburton's bewilderment and her aunt's fury.

Mr. Touchett is dying. Ralph, who has loved Isabel with pure disinterest, persuades his father to leave her seventy thousand pounds so she may see what complete liberty produces. It is the most consequential decision in the novel.

Isabel's American suitor Caspar Goodwood arrives in England, having followed her from America. He proposes. She refuses him with the same force she refused Warburton but for different reasons.

In Florence, Isabel meets Madame Merle — an extraordinarily accomplished, polished American expatriate — and is immediately, powerfully drawn to her. The friendship that will ruin her has begun.

Madame Merle takes Isabel to meet Gilbert Osmond at his villa outside Florence. Osmond receives them with studied indifference. His daughter Pansy appears. Isabel finds Osmond singular.

Osmond courts Isabel with calculated indirection. He tells her that she is the only person he has ever encountered who understands him. She begins to fall in love with the idea of him.

Isabel decides to marry Osmond. Ralph is appalled. Caspar Goodwood makes a final attempt. Mrs. Touchett is resigned. The trap closes.

Three years have passed. Isabel and Osmond live in Rome. The marriage is a catastrophe. Osmond wants a beautiful possession. Isabel's mind, her independence, her spirit — these are what he most wants to extinguish.

Lord Warburton reappears in Rome. Osmond wants him to marry Pansy. Isabel perceives that Warburton is interested in Pansy only as a way to remain near herself. A conflict between Isabel and Osmond crystallizes.

Isabel sits alone by the dying fire and thinks. For fifty pages, nothing happens except the movement of her consciousness. This is widely considered the greatest chapter in American fiction.

Osmond's sister the Countess Gemini, who has always been fond of Isabel and contemptuous of her brother, tells Isabel the truth: Madame Merle is Pansy's mother. Osmond and Madame Merle were lovers for years.

Isabel confronts Madame Merle. The confrontation is indirect, barely explicit, and entirely devastating. Madame Merle, shaken for the first time, concedes defeat without admitting anything.

Ralph is dying. Isabel defies Osmond's prohibition and travels to England. Ralph tells her that he was wrong — that he ruined her. She tells him that nothing was wrong with what he gave her. He dies.

Caspar Goodwood finds Isabel in the garden after the funeral. He kisses her once, with all his force. She runs. The next morning she has left for Rome. The novel ends.