Henry James was an American author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism. "The Portrait of a Lady" is the awesome story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. This novel reflects James's continuing interest in the differences between the New World and the Old, often to the detriment of the former.