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This novel about Isabel Archer, a young American woman visiting extended family in England, has had admirers ever since its publication in the late 19th century - and the start of the 21st century has accorded an extraordinary degree of attention to the book and to its Manhattan-born author. Within a period of thirteen years have come a biography of the novel, a sequel to the novel, and a novel about the life of the author! Let’s read them all.

• April 14: Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881, revised 1907). The Penguin edition is recommended.
• April 28:  Michael Gorra, Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece (2012)
• May 12: John Banville, Mrs. Osmond (2017)
• May 26:  Colm Tóibín, The Master (2004)