Macmillan Copy-text

[1881] / 1882

As explained in the Copy-text Rationale, this version of The Portrait of a Lady, though not published until June 1882, actually was printed from the first setting of type made for the novel.  It therefore has textual, rather than strictly chronological, priority.

Before type was set for the production of stereotype plates, James revised sheets of Macmillan’s Magazine to give Macmillan’s printers an improved copy-text.  The author introduced nearly 400 substantive variants, a considerable portion of which involved the elimination of 67 exclamation points.  For a complete record of these and other textual variants, readers should consult the Cambridge Edition of The Portrait of a Lady in its print form, published in 2016.

The Portrait of a Lady – 1882 Macmillan copy-text

The Portrait of a Lady – 1882 facsimile pages