Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1985), Paperback, 448 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. From Boston's social underworld emerges Verena Tarrant, a girl with extraordinary oratorical gifts, which she deploys in tawdry meeting-houses on behalf of "the sisterhood of women." She acquires two admirers of a very different stamp: Olive Chancellor, devotee of radical causes and marked out for tragedy; and Basil Ransom, a veteran of the Civil War who holds rigid views concerning society and women's place therein. Is the lovely, lighthearted Verena made for public movements or private passions? A struggle to possess her, body and soul, develops between Olive and Basil. The exploitation of Verena's unregenerate innocence reflects a society whose moral and cultural values are failing to survive the new dawn of liberalism and democracy. When it was first published in 1886, The Bostonians was not welcomed by Henry James's fellow countrymen, who failed to appreciate its delicacy and wit. But over a century later, this book is widely regarded as James's finest American fiction and perhaps his comic masterpiece.… (more)
Media reviews
The New Yorker
Set in the period after the Civil War, among the abolitionists, who are now—it's 1875—turning their energies to the emancipation of women, it's a wonderful, teeming novel, with darting perceptions. It's perhaps the most American of James's novels—not just because it is set here but because
It's the liveliest of his novels, maybe because it has sex right there at the center, and so it's crazier—riskier, less controlled, less gentlemanly—than his other books. He himself seems to be pulled about, identifying with some of the characters and then rejecting them for others. I think it is by far the best novel in English about what at that time was called "the woman question," and it must certainly be the best novel in the language about the cold anger that the issue of equal rights for women can stir in a man. I first read the book when I was in my early twenties, and it was like reading advance descriptions of battles I knew at first hand; rereading it, some forty years later, I found it a marvelous, anticipatory look at issues that are more out in the open now but still unresolved.
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all the characters are Americans, and because Boston, with its quacks and mystics, its moral seriousness and its dowdiness, is contrasted with New York's frivolous "society" and the South's conservatism... It's the liveliest of his novels, maybe because it has sex right there at the center, and so it's crazier—riskier, less controlled, less gentlemanly—than his other books. He himself seems to be pulled about, identifying with some of the characters and then rejecting them for others. I think it is by far the best novel in English about what at that time was called "the woman question," and it must certainly be the best novel in the language about the cold anger that the issue of equal rights for women can stir in a man. I first read the book when I was in my early twenties, and it was like reading advance descriptions of battles I knew at first hand; rereading it, some forty years later, I found it a marvelous, anticipatory look at issues that are more out in the open now but still unresolved.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member ocgreg34
Olive Chancellor, a confirmed old maid (at the age of 30), desires nothing more than to see the day when women will earn the right to vote, just as the men do. She attends many lectures and salons of Boston, listening to the great ladies of her day espousing the virtues of allowing women the right
One obstacle stands in their way, though: Olive's cousin Basil Ransom, a Southerner visiting from Mississippi with the hope of beginning a law practice in Boston. He happens to be at the same salon, noticing Verena more for her looks rather than her vocal abilities. Something about her lights a fire in his heart, and he sets out to win her heart -- much to the dismay of Olive who vows to keep Verena at the forefront of the suffrage movement any way she can.
What makes the story worth reading is the characters. Olive Chancellor comes across as cold and determined, knowing exactly what she wants and how to get it. Her hold on Verena and her need to mold her into a figurehead of the suffrage movement borders on obsessive, in a Mrs. Danvers kind of way. As for Ransom, he gently laughs away the thought of women having the right to vote, burying his real feelings behind slick Southern charm, and he would like nothing more than to prove to Olive that her struggle will never succeed by making Verena his wife. Two perfectly drawn warriors, and neither is at all likeable -- which may be how James intended it. But I found some mad delight in watching the two of them try to outmaneuver one another, using Verena as the rope in their tug-of-war.
"The Bostonians" displays this struggle between the two cousins, making for an interesting battle of the sexes played out during the late 19th century. Definitely worth a read.
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to vote and to aid in running the government. Though the talks are edifying, momentum has yet to pick up and spread the women's suffrage movement outside of a few notable cities. And then, while attending one such lecture at the home of Miss Birdseye -- one of the local leaders of the suffrage movement -- Olive hears the voice of young Verena Tarrant. Trained by her parents as a gifted speaker, Verena mesmerizes the small gathering as she speaks, and Olive realizes that Verena is just the voice she has been waiting for to lead the movement. Olive immediately conspires to take Verena under her wing and away from her parents, preparing her for a role as the new voice of the suffrage movement.One obstacle stands in their way, though: Olive's cousin Basil Ransom, a Southerner visiting from Mississippi with the hope of beginning a law practice in Boston. He happens to be at the same salon, noticing Verena more for her looks rather than her vocal abilities. Something about her lights a fire in his heart, and he sets out to win her heart -- much to the dismay of Olive who vows to keep Verena at the forefront of the suffrage movement any way she can.
What makes the story worth reading is the characters. Olive Chancellor comes across as cold and determined, knowing exactly what she wants and how to get it. Her hold on Verena and her need to mold her into a figurehead of the suffrage movement borders on obsessive, in a Mrs. Danvers kind of way. As for Ransom, he gently laughs away the thought of women having the right to vote, burying his real feelings behind slick Southern charm, and he would like nothing more than to prove to Olive that her struggle will never succeed by making Verena his wife. Two perfectly drawn warriors, and neither is at all likeable -- which may be how James intended it. But I found some mad delight in watching the two of them try to outmaneuver one another, using Verena as the rope in their tug-of-war.
"The Bostonians" displays this struggle between the two cousins, making for an interesting battle of the sexes played out during the late 19th century. Definitely worth a read.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Audiobook.....Surprisingly radical! This is a metaphorical story about the tug of war between men and women. A native Mississippian strives to conquer a lovely young feminist reformer in post Civil War Boston. I say conquer, because to succumb to him means forever relinquishing her right to express
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herself on any feminist issue. The closing line is something like,".......I fear these tears are only a few of those she will shed in the future." Show Less
LibraryThing member LizaHa
I read this book because I just moved to Boston and hoped it would give me a sense of atmosphere, which it did. I was not expecting it to be as hilarious as it was. Unfortunately the humor tones down a little bit after the first hundred pages. It starts out absolutely ruthless but then you get the
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sense he maybe relented a little, because after all he loves these Bostonians, doesn't he? And so do we. (Or if you don't, you might be heartless.) Anyway, as the humor starts to fade the book becomes completely gripping in a dramatic way, so it is a win-win. Have you ever had friends or maybe even people you don't like very much who, for some reason, enter your consciousness such that even their smallest gestures or off-handed comments seem extremely significant, even urgent, fraught with a kind of meaning that points way beyond themselves? That's how these characters are, I think. (Maybe all Henry James?) And I guess I could see how it could get tiresome for some people, but I disagree with them. So, anyway, I read this book on the edge of my seat and was blown away at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member magicians_nephew
I must admit I’m not a huge fan of Henry James. I can read his jewel-like short novels like “The Turn of the Screw”, but his longer works just take more patience than I have in me.
But my reading group wanted to read James, and we picked The Bostonians.
OK
Fade in on post Civil War Boston --
We meet her distant cousin Basil Ransom from Mississippi. He is a none to well off lawyer (and a "Manly Man") currently trying to make his way in New York City.
Quite by chance Olive invites Basil to a meeting at the home of a none-too-wealthy but lifelong committed activist named Miss Birdseye. There they meet a young woman named Verona who turns out to be a passionate and effective speaker for the cause of woman’s rights. (But is she just a performer - or does she really believe in it? Hmmm).
(We forget that in the days before movies and radio going to a platform lecture was a popular form of entertainment.)
Olive and Basil are each in their own ways drawn to this young lovely, and the book is basically their tug of war over her life and fate and freedom.
James was one who never used one word when twenty could do, and the book reads long. He is alternately snarky and sympathetic to the woman’s movement and its place in the Boston community.
But he writes well and with tiny elegant strokes of the brush builds up a complex portrait of this very insular society in this time and this place.
Still thinking about the ending. You will too.
Still in two minds about Henry James. But I'm not sorry we read this.
But my reading group wanted to read James, and we picked The Bostonians.
OK
Fade in on post Civil War Boston --
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interior - the home of a wealthy young woman named Olive Chancellor. (She's such a prig and a priss - and a snob - that you have to look twice to see how young she really is) She is an active and passionate advocate for the rights of women and “the downtrodden”. We meet her distant cousin Basil Ransom from Mississippi. He is a none to well off lawyer (and a "Manly Man") currently trying to make his way in New York City.
Quite by chance Olive invites Basil to a meeting at the home of a none-too-wealthy but lifelong committed activist named Miss Birdseye. There they meet a young woman named Verona who turns out to be a passionate and effective speaker for the cause of woman’s rights. (But is she just a performer - or does she really believe in it? Hmmm).
(We forget that in the days before movies and radio going to a platform lecture was a popular form of entertainment.)
Olive and Basil are each in their own ways drawn to this young lovely, and the book is basically their tug of war over her life and fate and freedom.
James was one who never used one word when twenty could do, and the book reads long. He is alternately snarky and sympathetic to the woman’s movement and its place in the Boston community.
But he writes well and with tiny elegant strokes of the brush builds up a complex portrait of this very insular society in this time and this place.
Still thinking about the ending. You will too.
Still in two minds about Henry James. But I'm not sorry we read this.
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LibraryThing member literarysarah
Henry James's female characters, whether stupid, manipulative, or simply weak, never fail to disappoint.
LibraryThing member tzelman
An emotional romance between a Southerner and an emancipationist--windy but pointed
LibraryThing member jmcilree
DENSE writing. OK story. Sometimes very funny. Is Olive Chancellor a lesbian?
LibraryThing member gwendolynzepeda
This book made me so angry that I almost had an aneurism. Then I calmed down and realized anew Mr. James' talent for depicting brilliant women in abusive romances, and I loved him anew for understanding what a scary tragedy that situation is.
LibraryThing member barefeet4
I didn't really sympathize with any of the characters or their causes. I think Mrs. Birdseye was the only really likable character; Olive to sure of herself, Basil chivalrous on the outside and contemptuous on the inside and Verena to easily swayed and too naive for her own good. I do like to
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imagine though that at the end Olive finally found her voice and began speaking for the cause that she so fervently believed in. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lady_Lazarus
Most of all: boring. This time Henry James didn't even succeed in manipulating the reader (or just me?) to feel anxiety on behalf of the characters. I was left wondering whether this was a failed satire or not, because the themes of emancipation were brushed aside as if the male narrator didn't
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know at all what the women actually stood for. Also the female characters remained unapproachable and one-dimensional. Show Less
LibraryThing member corinneblackmer
This is my least favorite of all of James' novels. He descends into his worst impulses towards misogyny, self-lacerating homophobia, and anti-Americanism in his supposed design to tell a tale of American manners and the triumph of the Old South over Puritan New England.
LibraryThing member stillatim
Not quite sure what to make of this. It has a few Jamesian qualities: the enormous significance of details, general tragic view of life etc... But this is surrounded by mind-numbing detail and a set of characters with uninteresting psychologies. James is at his best when he's finding the complexity
The whole thing is very uneven. To begin with, we sympathise with the Southern gent. At the end, you want nothing so much as to kick him in the head. Did James change his mind? Is this change intentional? It's certainly infuriating. It was always obvious that Ransom (the Southerner) was a horrible human being, just as it was always obvious that Olive was at least partially good.
The final forty pages are brilliant, but the 400 or so before them are pretty tough going. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, really. You're much better off with the other novels of this period- Portrait of a Lady, Washington Square - and, before them, The Europeans. Still, it's James. So I can't go below three stars.
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in the simple. But the main characters here are a caricature of an early feminist; a caricature of a post-war Southern gent; and a girl who's a bit too good to be anything but stupid. When the characters are this one dimensional, the usual James pyrotechnics can't do their thing. It's like watching fireworks during the day. The whole thing is very uneven. To begin with, we sympathise with the Southern gent. At the end, you want nothing so much as to kick him in the head. Did James change his mind? Is this change intentional? It's certainly infuriating. It was always obvious that Ransom (the Southerner) was a horrible human being, just as it was always obvious that Olive was at least partially good.
The final forty pages are brilliant, but the 400 or so before them are pretty tough going. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, really. You're much better off with the other novels of this period- Portrait of a Lady, Washington Square - and, before them, The Europeans. Still, it's James. So I can't go below three stars.
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LibraryThing member charlie68
Not an easy read by any means but timely and the book is written in 1886.
LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair
Read this in the 1970s, and remembered liking it. This time around, I read it with a more critical eye. First thing I realize it that this book was published first in serial form, which explains how the story, which is really very simple, just goes on and on. You see how James is making fun of
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feminists, Boston spinsters, and post-Reconstruction southerners. But the mystery is: why is anyone so taken with Verena? Because she's such a beautiful vessel into which others can pour their thoughts and opinions, I guess. The way Basil Ransom pursues Verena is improbable, but the outcome is not, I expect, even today. It just would have made a better short story. I think if I were going to reread Henry James, whose work I very much liked, overall, I might have picked a better book to start with. I guess I'm just partial to anything having to do with Boston. Show Less
LibraryThing member jjmiller50fiction
The part where Olive literally buys Verena from her father, for use in the cause of emancipating women, showed me a quite startling sense of humor on the part of the author.
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
The Bostonians is a novel of manners. We can appreciate is much more pleasurably when taking the role as observers than when trying to analyze of explain the characters. While the 1820s - 1840s are traditionally described as the hey-day of the American reform movement, culminating with the triumph
This type of environment exists up until the day of today: magical healers, homeopaths, veganists, religious fanatics, environmental activists: and the three characters as embodied in The Bostonians are also still found in the same scene: Olive Chancellor as the establishment within a movement but possible with a hidden agenda, some personal interest, Verena Tarrant, the child who grew up within the movement, lacking critical judgement, and Basil Ransom, the common-sense skeptic.
While the scene itself is described to make it amusing, neither pro nor contra, the substance of the novel focuses on the competition for Verena's heart.
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of the abolitionist movement at the end of the Civil War, the reform movement picked up unabated after the Civil War with idealists striving for women's rights, both voting and emancipation, the abolition of tobacco use, vegetarianism, health reform, homeopathic medicine, and pacifism among others. Henry James describes Boston as the city where this activism thrived in the circuit of lectures, together with lectures by quacks, cranks, faddists, and “do-gooders". The best part of Book 1, running well over 80 pages is all devoted to describing a single event like that, where the reader is taken on a tour observing speakers and attendants on an evening.This type of environment exists up until the day of today: magical healers, homeopaths, veganists, religious fanatics, environmental activists: and the three characters as embodied in The Bostonians are also still found in the same scene: Olive Chancellor as the establishment within a movement but possible with a hidden agenda, some personal interest, Verena Tarrant, the child who grew up within the movement, lacking critical judgement, and Basil Ransom, the common-sense skeptic.
While the scene itself is described to make it amusing, neither pro nor contra, the substance of the novel focuses on the competition for Verena's heart.
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Subjects
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1886
Physical description
448 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0140432256 / 9780140432251
Local notes
The Penguin English Library