ABSTRACT
In Henry James's early reviews, and in his letters of the time, he also scrutinizes the work of writers and critics who offered positive models from which he derived some of the critical standards that were to influence his own novels, among them The Portrait of a Lady. James envisages the 'house of fiction' as pierced by a million windows, each formed according to the need of a particular author's 'individual vision'. James's view as author is through one particular window of the 'house of fiction', an exclusive viewpoint that sets his aspirations apart from the vision offered by Eliot of an encompassing web. James's preface to The Portrait of a Lady provides his own model for a reading of the novel. In contrast, James's preface to The Portrait of a Lady implies that he is taking George Eliot's 'ardent young girl' and making her truly the 'central figure' of his drama.
