Allen, Elizabeth. “Woman in the Nineteenth Century.” A Woman’s Place in the Novels
          of Henry James.  New York: St. Martin’s, 1984.  11-35.  The chapter deals
           with nineteenth-century female behaviors toward themselves and their society as
           a way to account for Isabel’s commitment to independence.

        Auchard, John.  Silence in Henry James: The Heritage of Symbolism and Decadence.
           Pennsylvania:  Pennsylvania UP, 1986. An examination of literary silence in James’s
           early novels as an elliptical instance that reveals both the characters’ unresolved
           dilemmas and the significance of non-verbal communication.

             Blair, Sara.  Introduction. Henry James and the Writing of Race and Nation. By Blair.
           Cambridge, USA: Cambridge UP, 1996.  1-14.  The author argues that James’s
           exposure to American cultural resources, particularly theatrical representations,
           forged a variety of national, racial, and cultural attitudes which express themselves
           throughout his works.

             Donahue, Peter. “Collecting as Ethos and Technique in The Portrait of a Lady.”Studies
          in American Fiction 25 (1997): 41-46.<http://www.jstor.org/cgi-bin/jstor/gensearch>.
           In this essay Peter addresses the act of collecting as a metaphor used by the novelist
           to evince the nature of power-driven interactions among the characters.

             Fowler, Virginia C.  “Solutions to the Practical Problem of Life: The Portrait of a
          Lady.” Henry James’s American Girl: The Embroidery of the Canvas. Wisconsin:
           Wisconsin UP, 1984.  In her essay Fowler examines Isabel’s limitations in the light
           of James’s determination to present a realistic portrait of a particular kind of
           nineteenth-century American woman abroad.

          Horne, Philip. “Perspectives in The Portrait of a Lady.”Henry James and Revision.
           Oxford, USA: Oxford UP, 1990.  184-227.  The author distinguishes two
           complementary senses of character which apply to Isabel Archer: the character
           of individual nature, and that of virtue.

            Jolly, Roslyn.  Henry James: History, Narrative, Fiction. Oxford English Monographs.
            Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993.Taking the Jamesian argument that the novelist should claim
            the status of a historian, the work focuses on the effects produced by the combination
            of fictional and historiographical elements upon James’s narrative.

             Jones, Granville H.  “Isabel Archer: Romance to Realism: Self-Consciousness and the
           Moral Sense.”  Henry James Psychology of Experience.  The Hague:  Mouton,
           1975. 40-50.  Granville argues that in The Portrait of a Lady Henry James’s initial
           concern with Isabels’s innocence gives way to an intricate examination of what
           she becomes and is.

             Laird, J.T.  “Cracks in Precious Objects: Aestheticism and Humanity in The Portrait of a
          Lady.” American Literature 52 (1981): 643-48.
            <http://www.jstor.org/cgi-bin/jstor/gensearch>.
            Laird’s essay explores the conflict of the aesthetic and
            the moral amid the sophistication of European society
            in two emblematic scenes form the novel.

             Long, Robert Emmet. “The Portrait of a Lady: The Caging of the Beautiful Striver.”
          Henry James: The Early Novels.  Boston: Twayne,1983. 101-27.
           The chapter presents a general background to the novel that concentrates on
           such elements as source, imagery, characterization, and resolution.

             Pawelczak, Andy.  “The Portrait of a Lady.”Film in Review  Jan-Feb. 1997: 48.  The
           article provides technical as well as thematic comments on Jane Campion’s film The
          Portrait of a Lady, stressing the director’s interpretative approach to the literary work.

          Pearson, John H.  The Prefaces of Henry James: Framing the Modern Reader.
          Pennsylvania:  Pennsylvania UP, 1997. The work elaborates on the importance of
           James’s prefaces in supplementing his novels and tales with criticism of their methods,
           specific scenes, and writing technique.

             Rowe, John Carlos.  Introduction. The Other Henry James.  By Rowe.  Duke:
            Duke UP,1998. 1-37.  Drawing from recent work in queer and feminist theory,
            the author establishes that a pertinent approach to James today should consider
            the vulnerability of the writer to his own repressive historical milieu.

              Samuels, Charles.  “The Beautiful Striver and her Tragic Mistake.”The Ambiguity of
           Henry James. Illinois: Illinois UP, 1971. 108-28.  The section examines Isabel’s
            failed attempt to conciliate both virtue and pleasure, inability which ultimately effects
            the heroine’s tragic fall.

              Sicker, Philip.  “The Requirements of the Imagination: The Portrait of a Lady and
           The Princess Casamassima.” Love and the Quest for Identity in the Fiction
           of Henry James.  Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980.  The author approaches
            James’s difficulties in realistically conveying the image of the young woman that
            had lingered in his mind for several years.

               Smith, Virginia. “The Portrait of a Lady.”  Henry James and the Real Thing.
             New York St. Martin’s, 1994.  31-74.  By means of a comparative analysis
             between Isabel Archer and Madame Merle the author discusses two principal
             concerns of  The Portrait of a Lady: the discrepancy between style and essence,
             and the expression of the self.

               Tanner, Tony.  Henry James and the Art of  Nonfiction. Georgia:  Georgia UP, 1995.
             The work focuses on two main aspects: James’s travel writings as a reflection of his
             cosmopolitan views, and the deliberate rejection of consistent method or theory in his
             literary criticism.

              ---.  Henry James: The Writer and his Work.Massachusetts:  Massachusetts
            UP, 1985. The study evaluates the impact of  biographical events on James’s literary
            production during the early phase of his career.

           Van Ghent, Dorothy.  “The Portrait of a Lady.”Readings in Literary Criticism
            18 (1972) : 83-86. The essay emphasizes the presence of pictorial elements in
            the novel and their role in Isabel Archer’s characterization, both physical and spiritual.

              Woolf, Judith.  “The Portrait of a Lady.”Henry James.  Cambridge, Eng.:
            Cambridge UP, 1991. 35-58. The essay compares and contrasts George Eliot’s
            Gwendolen Harleth and Henry James’s Isabel Archer.