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About the Author

American Henry James was born and raised in New York City in 1843. His father was a prominent social theorist and intellectual who frequently traveled across Europe, and Henry and his brother William often accompanied him on these trips. Henry was exposed to this European society from a young age, and his fascination with the decadence and sophistication of Europe in comparison to the shiny optimism and sincerity of American is apparent in many of his works. Early on in his writing career, James moved to Europe and even became a British citizen in 1915 because he disagreed with America’s decision not to become involved with the First World War.

His novels The American, The Europeans, and Daisy Miller were all written with a mind to psychological realism, but it was not until the 1880s that he wrote The Portrait of a Lady, often considered his greatest novel. Critics sometimes voiced the opinion that James’s work was uneventful, or too slow-paced, but others delighted in his style of writing, which they cited as being elegant, concise, and fluid.

Despite James’s obvious delight in observing and noting the interaction of humans in society, he was a shy and socially removed individual who did not keep many close friends. He was never married and very open about his decision to choose a life of celibacy. He was a prolific writer and produced over 100 books in 40 years of writing, including some of his most well-known works, The Turn of the Screw and The Wings of the Dove.

The Portrait of a Lady

Generally considered Henry James’s finest piece of writing, The Portrait of a Lady was first written in the 1880s. A great lover of observing human behavior in society, James centers the novel on the conflict between American individualism and European custom, following the lives of American characters living in Europe. The young Isabel Archer is confident, independent, and well-read and is regarded in her home town of Albany, New York as too intimidating a woman for eligible men to pursue. Shortly after the death of her father, her American aunt Mrs. Touchett comes to invite Isabel to accompany her back to Europe. Isabel jumps at the chance and is soon turning down offers of marriage from British suitor Mr. Warburton and spurning the affections of her cousin Ralph in favor of maintaining her independence.

When Mr. Touchett’s health declines and he eventually dies, he leaves half his wealth to Isabel, rendering her a woman of independent means. Madame Merle befriends Isabel, her interest in their friendship piqued by Isabel’s inheritance, and accompanies Mrs. Touchett and Isabel to Florence. Madame Merle introduces her friend to Gilbert Osmond, building him up as a fine man of taste and devoted to the arts, despite the fact that he has no social standing or wealth of his own. Little does Isabel know that Madame Merle is romantically involved with Osmond and has plans to access Isabel’s fortune by persuading her to marry him. Isabel does marry him, despite the disapproval of those around her, and moves to live with him and his daughter Pansy in Rome. As Isabel and Osmond grow to detest each other more and more every day, Isabel attempts to save Pansy from marrying the wrong man, infuriating Osmond in the process because his daughter has rejected a wealthy suitor.

When Isabel hears that Ralph is ill, Osmond demands that she stay in Rome and not visit her cousin. After wrestling with the duty she feels toward her husband and her adherence to social propriety, she eventually decides to go to Ralph in England. She is even more resolved to do so when she finds out, to her horror, that Pansy is actually Madame Merle’s daughter. When Ralph dies, Isabel has to decide whether to honor her duty to her husband and return to Rome, even though the independent part of her tells her to flee and never return. Ultimately, Isabel feels the stronger pull of societal duty, the promise she made to her stepdaughter, and the weight of her marriage commitment to Osmond, and returns to Rome.

The American

An enduring concern among internationally minded Americans is the stereotypical image of “the American” held by the rest of the world, especially Europe, perceived to be a disapproving cultural and social parent. Henry James was aware that the French writer Alexandre Dumas had portrayed an American as uncivilized and disreputable in his play L’Étrangère (The Foreigner) in 1876, so he wanted to redress this point of view in his novel The American (1877).

The central character of the novel is a wealthy American who travels to France in the aftermath of the American Civil War, to experience the historical and cultural depth of Europe. In essence, James was exploring the juxtaposition of a civilized American reacting to the social environment and traditions he encounters on his travels. Put simply, James portrayed a New World mind contrasted against those of the Old World. The fundamental point being that Americans were free from the complexities and preposterousness of etiquette that exist in high-society Europe, such etiquette a fragile structure that existed only because the components had remained unchanged for countless generations. To counteract the perception that Americans were unrefined in thoughts and behavior, James portrays his character as thoughtful and intellectually searching. However, he inevitably comes across as rather gauche and pretentious to European sensibilities because he is naïve of their ways. His attempts to learn to be cultivated and sophisticated are at odds with those around him who supposedly already are.

The story works because James manages to exploit the comic value from this humorous interplay, as the American struggles to deal with the bound behaviors of the Europeans, which makes them seem somewhere between eccentric and insane. The overriding insight is that behavioural “normality” is a subjective judgment, based on one’s level of familiarity with the world view of others. It is largely a case of never the twain shall meet, which is why people tend to simplify matters by inventing stereotypes. It becomes easier for the mind to comprehend if all members of a culture are superimposed by a single personality.

Of course, in life this occurs mutually, so that all cultures stereotype other cultures. The rub with James, however, is that America is perceived as an adolescent nation, so that it is faced with either delinquently ignoring those who still belong to its parent cultures or perpetually seeking approval from them. Interestingly, this idea still persists to some degree almost 150 years on: Americans are still stereotyped as loud and unsubtle by many Europeans, and Europeans are still stereotyped as staid and superior by many Americans.