Preface
1 (p. 3) Preface: This preface was written specifically for what came to be known as the New York Edition of The Portrait of a Lady; the New York Edition was an expensive 24-volume set called The Novels and Tales of Henry James published by Charles Scribner’s Sons from 1907 to 1909. The preface expresses James’s thinking about the novel more than twenty-five years after its original publication. The complete collection of James’s prefaces for the New York Edition has been collected in a single volume called The Art of the Novel: Critical Prefaces, edited by R. P. Blackmur (1934).
2 (p. 3) 1879: In fact, James went to Florence in late March of 1880; he stayed at the Hotel de l‘Arno, where he began writing The Portrait of a Lady.
3 (p. 3) after 1880: Roderick Hudson and The American, James’s second and third novels, were first serialized in the Boston-based magazine the Atlantic Monthly and published in book form in 1875 and 1877, respectively. The Portrait of a Lady appeared in monthly installments from November 1880 through December 1881.
4 (p. 3) “Macmillan’s Magazine”: The Portrait of a Lady appeared in this London-based magazine in installments from October 1880 through November 1881.
5 (p. 3) a stay of several weeks made in Venice: James continued work on Portrait in Venice from March through June 1881.
6 (p. 5) Ivan Turgenieff. James greatly admired this Russian novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer (1818-1883), whose name is most commonly spelled Turgenev. They met and became friendly while James was living in Paris in the winter and spring of 1875-1876.
7 (p. 6) the image en disponibilité: The French phrase translates as “the image at large.” See chapter III, in which James introduces Isabel Archer “seated alone with a book” (p. 36) in the house in Albany, for such an image.
8 (p. 9) the conception of a certain young woman affronting her destiny: James’s use of the word “affront” underscores Isabel’s egotism and self-confidence. The word comes from the old French afronter, “to slap in the face”; in modern English, an affront is an action or remark that causes outrage or offense.
9 (p. 10) George Eliot: This English writer (1819-1880; she was born Mary Anne Evans) wrote the novels Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, and others.
10 (p. 10) “In these frail vessels … human affection”: James is slightly misquoting the final sentence of chapter 11 of George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda. Eliot wrote: “In these delicate vessels is borne onward through the ages the treasure of human affections.” In either case, the frail or delicate vessels are young women. The phrase comes from the Bible, 1 Peter 3:7: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel” (King James Version).
11 (p. 10) Hetty Sorrell and Maggie Tulliver and Rosamond Vincy and Gwendolen Harleth: The stories of these female characters are told in the four novels James has just named.
12 (p. 10) Dickens: Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the leading English novelist of the Victorian period.
13 (p. 10) Walter Scott: This Scottish poet and novelist (1771-1832) wrote the popular Waverley novels and other historical romances.
14 (p. 10) R. L. Stevenson: Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) wrote such well-known works as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
15 (p. 11) Juliets and Cleopatras and Portias: James here cites the heroines of Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Merchant of Venice, respectively.
16 (p. 13) “The Ambassadors”: This is James’s penultimate novel, published in 1903.
Chapter V
1 (p. 60) “A castle spectre, a thing that appears”: The haunted castle was a popular feature of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gothic fiction. Jane Austen satirized the genre in Northanger Abbey (1818).
Chapter IX
1 (p. 89) The two Misses Molyneux: Lord Warburton’s sisters use the family name. Warburton is his inherited title.
2 (p. 94) “That’s a very Machiavellian speech”: The term “Machiavellian” here means “manipulative.” In his book The Prince, Florentine political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) counsels rulers to advance their interests through manipulation and cunning.
Chapter XVII
1 (p. 182) “The good Homer sometimes nods”: Even the epic poet Homer is sometimes dull or makes a mistake, which is to say nothing is perfect. The saying is from Horace’s Ars Poetica, lines 358-359.
Chapter XVIII
1 (p. 188) “I’m Madame Merle”: In French, merle means blackbird. The name is similar to that of Madame de Merteuil in Pierre Choder los de Laclos’s novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782), in which Merteuil—an elegant, socially admired, seemingly irreproachable noblewoman—plots with her ex-lover Valmont to seduce and corrupt the morals of a young woman who has just finished her convent education.
2 (p. 189) a Juno or a Niobe: In Roman mythology, Juno was the wife and sister of Jupiter; she was the goddess of marriage and a protector of women. In Greek mythology, Niobe was a queen of Thebes who had many children. She boasted of her fertility to the goddess Leto, pointing out that Leto had only two children. In revenge Leto’s children, Apollo and Artemis, killed all of Niobe’s children. Zeus turned her into a stone, and her tears became streams that flowed from it.
3 (p. 197) “I should like to put money in her purse”: In Shakespeare’s Othello (act 1, scene 3), Iago wins over the gullible Roderigo by telling him, “Put money in thy purse.”
Chapter XIX
1 (p. 207) she said to Isabel that she would some day a tale unfold: Madame Merle is quoting from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (act 1, scene 5), in which the ghost of Hamlet’s father says, “I could a tale unfold whose lightest word / would harrow up thy soul.”
2 (p. 210) “I was born before the French Revolution. Ah, my dear, je viens de loin; I belong to the old, old world”: The French phrase translates as “I come from afar.” As the scene takes place around 1870, Madame Merle is making extravagant claims for her age and experience. Referring to her many years in the old world, she implies that she is now far more European than American.
3 (p. 219) “I want very much to see the new Republic”: Henrietta is referring to the Third Republic (1870-1940), proclaimed after the fall of Napoleon III and his Second Empire.
Chapter XX
1 (p. 226) Louis Philippe: He was king of France from 1830 to 1848.
2 (p. 226) generation of 1830: The revolution of 1830 ended Charles IX’s effort to return France to an absolutist monarchy and enthroned Louis Philippe, the “citizen king.” His reign was marked by the power of the bourgeoisie.
3 (p. 228) “defended” by his bonne … obey to one’s bonne: The child’s use of French grammatical constructions in his English shows that he lacks experience in his native language.
4 (p. 229) Louis Quinze … First Empire … Queen Anne: Rosier is speaking of French furniture from the reigns of Louis XV (1715-1774) and Napoleon (1804-1815), and English furniture from the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714).
Chapter XXII
1 (p. 258) “En écus bien comptés?”: The French translates as “In carefully counted cash?” Osmond quotes from Molière’s L’Avare (The Miser, 1668; act 5, scene 1).
Chapter XXIII
1 (p. 267) Aristides the Just: The reference is to an Athenian statesman and general (c.530-468 B.C.). Plutarch relates that “an unlettered and utterly boorish fellow,” who had grown tired of hearing him called “the Just,” voted that Aristides be banished from the city (Lives, 7.6).
Chapter XXIV
1 (p. 275) Machiavelli: The term “Machiavellian” here means “manipulative.” In his book The Prince, Florentine political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) counsels rulers to advance their interests through manipulation and cunning.
2 (p. 275) Vittoria Colonna: She was an Italian religious poet (1492-1547), many of whose Petrarchan sonnets idealize her husband, who died in battle in 1525. After his death she lived in convents and was devoted to religious reform. In later life she was a close friend of Michelangelo.
3 (p. 275) Metastasio: Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) was a poet and librettist for opera seria (-serious opera”), which emphasized the solo voice and a florid vocal style.
Chapter XXVI
1 (p. 297) the American Corinne: Corinne, or Italy (1807) by Madame de Staäl, is a feminist novel of the French romantic period. The title character is a woman poet of genius who has a love affair with an English lord.
2 (p. 299) malaria: This mosquito-borne illness was thought to be related to the bad air (mal aria) arising from marshes surrounding Rome.
3 (p. 300) Niobe of Nations: Isabel cites Lord Byron’s lines about Rome in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1818), canto 4, stanza 79: ”The Niobe of Nations! There she stands, / Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe.”
Chapter XXVII
1 (p. 304) her Murray: Isabel is using Murray’s Guide to Rome, part of a series of guide books for travelers.
Chapter XXXI
1 (p. 339) The world lay before her—she could do whatever she chose: The wording here echoes the final lines of John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), as Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden: ”The World was all before them, where to choose / Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide: / They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow, / Through Eden took thir solitarie way.”
Chapter XXXIV
1 (p. 359) ”‘Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike’?”: Ralph quotes from Alexander Pope’s poem ”Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” (1735), line 203.
Chapter XXXVI
1 (p. 376) good Louis Quatorze: Madame Merle is referring to French furniture from the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715).
Chapter XXXVII
1 (p. 387) an Infanta of Velasguez: The Infanta was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain; Diego Velasquez (1599-1660) painted her portrait several times, most famously in Las Meninas.
Chapter XXXVIII
1 (p. 402) King of the Goths: Warburton is possibly referring to Alaric I, king of the Visigoths, who sacked Rome in A.D. 410, or Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who conquered Italy in 488.
Chapter XXXIX
1 (p. 415) between Scylla and Charybdis: As described in Homer’s Odyssey, Scylla and Charybdis are, respectively, a man-eating sea monster and a ship-swallowing whirlpool between which Odysseus’s ship must pass. According to legend, they were located in the Straits of Messina between Sicily and the mainland.
2 (p. 415) ”to be snatched away, like Proserpine … to the Plutonian shades”: Proserpine was the Roman name for the Greek goddess Persephone. Proserpine was carried off to the underworld by Pluto to be his queen.
Chapter XLIV
1 (p. 470) her “Creole” ancestors: In the New World, the term “creole” can apply to people with Spanish, French, Portuguese, or possibly African ancestry. The Countess’s description of her mother puts in question Madame Merle’s statement near the end of chapter XXV: “You Osmonds are a fine race—your blood must flow from some very pure source.”