One of James' most popular novels was the story of Isabel Archer, Portrait of a Lady (1881). Isabel, James' model of the "American Girl," travels to Europe where she declines marriage proposals from two honest men. Instead, she falls for Gilbert Osmond and, in doing so, she might just suffer enough to see the ghost of Gardencourt.

Another of James' novels that explores the theme of naïve Americans colliding with sophisticated Europeans is The Wings of a Dove (1902). At the beginning of the novel, Kate Croy, a Londoner, and her fiancée, Merton Densher, are ready to marry—though they differ in their approaches to the institution. Kate's fear of becoming her mother leads her to convince Merton to marry a terminally ill and very wealthy American, Milly Theale, so they will be rich. Theale discovers the plot...