This paper intends to analyze Henry James’s international theme, which is arguably best exemplified by The Portrait of a Lady in terms of ‘world literature.’ As commonly recognized, his international theme is writ large in his whole oeuvre. It encompasses, due to its very nature, the horizon of the world beyond any national boundaries, which, in turn, relates it to the notion of world literature; world literature as “the scar of the modern world-system most acutely inscribed within the text.” In particular, focusing on ch. 42 of The Portrait of a Lady, the chapter termed as “Isabel Archer’s night of vigil,” ‘the scar’ is revealed as the intense inner reflection of the heroine to emancipate herself from the darkness of the antagonist, Gilbert Osmond. Her returning to Rome at the end of the novel significantly upholds Isabel Archer “en l’air,” thereby contributing to enlarging the zone of engagement of the reader in reflecting Isabel’s struggle towards the wholeness of her being.