**The Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea continues the story of
Isabel Archer, the young protagonist of Henry James's beloved *The
Portrait of a Lady--*in this masterful novel of betrayal, corruption,
and moral ambiguity.
**
Eager but naïve, in James's novel Isabel comes into a large, unforeseen
inheritance and marries the charming, penniless, and--as Isabel finds
out too late--cruel and deceitful Gilbert Osmond. Here Banville imagines
Isabel's second chapter telling the story of a woman reawakened by grief
and the knowledge that she has been grievously wronged, and determined
to resume her quest for freedom and independence.