The text of this Second Edition of one of Henry James's most important novels is that of the New York Edition (1908).
In a sense, there are two distinctly separate Portraits―the 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 James's revision process.
Henry James and the Novel culls autobiographical excerpts from James's other writings―his 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 novel's 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.
Robert D. Bamberg is Emeritus Professor of English at Kent State University. He previously taught at Bates College (where he was chairman of the department and Dean of the Faculty) and at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is the author of articles on British and American fiction and is editor of The Confessions of Jereboam O. Beauchamp. He is an affiliate member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and practices psychoanalysis in Cleveland.
