Henry James

First edition, first printing of Henry James's early novel, The Portrait of a Lady.

• Sold as a set of 3 volumes.
• Henry James (American-British).
• London: Macmillan and Co, 1881.
• 266; 253, [1]; 248 pages, followed by 24-page publisher's catalogue in Volume III, dated April 1881.
• With all half titles. 
• Modern gilt-stamped half brown morocco with marbled boards, raised bands, gilt-stamped spine. Top edges gilt, other edges uncut, marbled endpapers.

The Portrait of a Lady is among the most important 19th-century novels to lay the groundwork for the stream-of-consciousness approach of the great 20th-century modernists like Virginia Woolf. James describes the struggles of his American ex-pat heroine in Europe with all the tenderness and nuance of psychological realism.

Bound in striking period style by leading contemporary bookbinder Trevor Lloyd, MBE, one of just 750 copies of the first edition.