YOUNG ADULT
READERS
STAGE 3
HENRY JAMES
Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady
In this reader you will also find: - Information about Henry James’ life - Focus On Sections: The Portrait of a Lady – an analysis, The year 1881, Cities in the 1800s - Glossary of difficult words - Appreciation and Extension Activities - Cambridge (PET) Activities
Tags Classic literature
Relationships
Family
Travel
Love
Elementary
600 headwords
A1
STAGE 2
Pre-Intermediate
800 headwords
A2
Key (KET)
STAGE 3
Intermediate
1000 headwords
B1
Preliminary (PET)
STAGE 4
Upper Intermediate
1800 headwords
B2
First (FCE)
STAGE 5
Advanced
2500 headwords
C1
Advanced (CAE)
STAGE 6
Proficiency
Unabridged Texts
C2
Proficiency (CPE)
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YOUNG ADULT ELI READERS
STAGE 1
Classic
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
One sleepy summer, an American woman arrives in England, and wakes everybody up. Isabel Archer is an interesting woman. Everybody thinks so. She is an independent woman. Everybody agrees. And she changes the lives of everyone she meets in England. But will England change her?
STAGE 3
Eli Readers is a beautifully illustrated series of timeless classics and specially written stories for learners of English.
HENRY JAMES THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
ELT B1
YOUNG ADULT
READERS
MAIN CHARACTERS
Chapter 1
An Interesting Woman
2 Mr Touchett sat in the garden, enjoying his afternoon cup of tea.
He looked at the house in front of him. The house was like an old friend. It even had a name – Gardencourt. And it had been his house for thirty years. Thirty years for a man is a long time. Now Mr Touchett was an old man. But for a house, thirty years isn’t very long. The house was built in the 1500s. It had lived through war and peace. It had seen Kings and Queens come and go. But for now, Gardencourt was his house. And he liked it very much. Thirty years ago, Mr Touchett had moved from America to London, to start a new life. His story, and so much of his life was connected to this house near London, on the Thames. And it had given him so much happiness. He looked around the garden. He wasn’t alone. There were two other people taking tea. His son, Ralph, and Ralph’s friend, Lord Warburton. Ralph looked at his father, sitting in his chair with a blanket over him. ‘Are you alright father?’ he asked. ‘Do you need another blanket? Or some more tea?’ ‘I’m fine,’ replied Mr Touchett. ‘Why don’t you stop worrying about me, and sit down. You don’t look well yourself.’ In fact Ralph wasn’t a healthy man. He was young but, just like his father, it was difficult for him to stand for too long. When he was a
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AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES
Reading 1
Read the sentences and decide who is speaking.
1 ‘I have sold everything I have, and now I have 40,000 dollars.’ 2 ‘Papa thinks I need some time alone, to think.’ 3 ‘I must go to Gardencourt. Ralph is dying.’ 4 ‘You cannot go to England. I don’t think we need to talk any longer.’ 5 ‘Osmond’s first wife had no children.’ 6 ‘Ralph never liked me. But I am sad he is dying.’ 7 ‘You have been like an angel, beside my bed.’ 8 ‘I’m yours forever – forever! Here I am.’
2
Fill in the missing gaps in the paragraph with a suitable word.
Madame Merle was Pansy’s mother. Pansy didn’t know (1) ______. She thought that (2) ______ mother was Osmond’s first wife who died. Osmond never had (3) ______ children with his first wife. He adopted Pansy (4) ______ help Madame Merle, because she was ashamed. Everybody believed (5) ______ Pansy was Osmond’s daughter. (6) ______ Osmond’s sister knew the truth, and she told Isabel.
Grammar 3
Match the phrasal verbs to their definition. b to 1 ■ 2 ■ to 3 ■ to 4 ■ to 5 ■ to 6 ■ to 7 ■ to
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look around carry on come back be fond of care about get up give up
a b c d
to return to see different things to not do something any more to like someone or something very much e to think that something is important f to continue g to move from a sitting position to a standing position
Discussion Points 4 Why was Isabel afraid of the park bench? Do you remember what happened there six years before? Look at the picture on page 27 if you can’t remember.
5
What did you think of the way the story ends? Why do you think it ended that way. Read page 105 to see if you were right.
6 Did you enjoy the story? Answer the questions.
1 Which part of the story did you like best? 2 Who was your favourite character? 3 Which part of the story didn’t you like?
Writing 7
Write a short paragraph of about 100 words, saying what you think Isabel will do next.
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FOCUS ON...
Henry James Early Life – A shy boy Henry James was born on the 15th April 1843 in New York. He was quite shy as a child, and he didn’t have many friends. His father was a famous social thinker and was very rich. Having a rich father helped Henry, and his brother William. They went to the best schools and travelled to England, and to other European countries like Germany and France. Henry became one of the greatest novelists of all time, and William became an important philosopher. 102
Henry James at eleven years old with his father, Henry James, Sr. – 1854
The Writer
His Work
It was in 1864 that he decided to become a writer. He had thought of Law and Science, but literature was his greatest passion. He always enjoyed reading, and it helped him to make his decision to write. James moved to London in 1876. In this period he wrote a lot of short stories and novels. His stories show a great ability to understand the way people speak and behave.
The Portrait of a Lady, written in 1881 is thought of by many as his best work. Some of his novels have been made into very successful films. Here are some of his other famous novels. The Europeans (1878), The Bostonians (1886), The Turn of the Screw (1898), The Wings of the Dove (1902), and The Ambassadors (1903).
His Last Years In 1897 James decided to leave London. He moved to a small town in England called Rye, but he continued to write. In 1915, one year before he died, he became a British citizen. But in his last years, James was often unwell. Just before he died King George V presented him with The Order of Merit. He died in the same month.
How do you think that Henry James’ experiences in life made it easier for him to write a story like The Portrait of a Lady? What parts of his life helped him to write this story?
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