The Portrait of a Lady

In a sense there are two distinctly separate Portraitsthe 1880-81 First Edition and the New York Edition which James extensively revised. The editor has meticulously prepared a list of textual variants to facilitate comparative reading of the novel. Nina Baym F. O. Matthiessen and Anthony J. Mazzella provide differing interpretations of Jamess revision process.Henry James and the Novel culls autobiographical excerpts from Jamess other writingshis Notebooks the intentionally autobiographical A Small Boy and Others and Notes of a Son and Brother and the travel books Italy Revisited A Roman Holiday and Roman Rides.Contemporary Reviews and Criticism provides both chronological and critical perspective on The Portrait of a Lady. Four reviews from 1882 outline the novels initial critical reception.Seven important essays from the period 1954-1991 provide a wide range of critical responses by Dorothy Van Ghent William H. Gass Laurence B. Holland Charles Feidelson Louis Auchincloss William Veeder and Millicent Bell.Bibliographical Aids includes judiciously selected secondary works on James from the wealth of material published yearly.