The Bostonians

The Bostonians

book data

528 ratings, 3.44 average rating, 53 reviews (more data...)

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published

June 30th 2004 (first published 1886) by Kessinger Publishing

binding

Paperback, 360 pages

isbn

1419154885 (isbn13: 9781419154881)

description

She felt that her friend's strange, uneasy eyes searched very far; a little more and they would go to the very bottom. Well, they might go if they wou...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 796)

All ratings | 5 stars (76) | 4 stars (169) | 3 stars (171) | 2 stars (52) | 1 star (34) | avg 3.44

all | this edition

Camille

Camille rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

07/27/07

Read in August, 2007

This was my first Henry James. Overall, I enjoyed it. It did take me a while to read it though. While I was engaged by the novel when I was actually reading it, there was nothing about the story that compelled me to resume reading once I'd put the book down. There is a plot, but it moves glacially until the last hundred pages or so. This trouble aside, I particulary liked reading about Boston of the 1870s, where Olive still has a view of the actual bay of Back Bay from her Charles Street ap...more

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Hol

Hol added it (review of isbn 0812969960)

04/16/08

Read in April, 2008

I loved the descriptions of place--the unfilled Back Bay in Boston, ramshackle tenements in German Manhattan, grass growing in disused shipyards on the Cape. But the main characters are hard to enjoy. Boston feminist Olive is all angry propaganda, her conservative Southern cousin Basil is all sentimental claptrap. My copy bills the book as addressing "the woman question," but social reform is only a backdrop to Olive and Basil's rivalry. I was also struck by the rootlessness of the cha...more

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4 comments

Becky

Becky rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

10/22/08

Read in October, 2008

i read this one for my lawyers in fiction seminar. it's a bit of a stretch to call this a novel about a lawyer, though one of the main characters is one. i suppose the most relevant connection to lawyering is the use of persuasion.

this novel's about two cousins-- olive chancellor, a wealthy feminist bostonian woman, and basil ransom, a southern conservative with strong mysogynist leanings-- who spend the entire book fighting over a young girl named verena tarrant. verena's supposedly...more

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Katherine

Katherine rated it:

(review of isbn 0140437665)

10/22/08

Read in October, 2008

I read this book for my Lawyers in Fiction class, but it doesn't really have much to do with lawyers or the law. It is the story of the struggle for Verena Tarrant, a young woman with a talent for oratory, a struggle between Basil Ransom, a conservative man who has left the defeated South, and Olive Chancellor, the upper crust Bostonian who tries to possess Verena in the name of bringing her out for the women's movement.

The book has many interesting themes - it made for a good dis...more

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William

William rated it:

(review of isbn 0192834428)

02/11/08

Read in January, 2008

My major question about this novel is -- What is it about? Is it a lampoon on women activists? A satire on the over-earnest people of Boston? A cautionary tale of what can happen to a vivacious and oddly talented young person (in this case, a woman, Verena Tarrant) who becomes the prize in a power struggle between two strong, arrogant, self-centered and diametrically opposed combatants (Olive Chancellor, a self-professed man-hating women's advocate; and Basil Ransome, an ultraconservative man fr...more My major question about this novel is -- What is it about? Is it a lampoon on women activists? A satire on the over-earnest people of Boston? A cautionary tale of what can happen to a vivacious and oddly talented young person (in this case, a woman, Verena Tarrant) who becomes the prize in a power struggle between two strong, arrogant, self-centered and diametrically opposed combatants (Olive Chancellor, a self-professed man-hating women's advocate; and Basil Ransome, an ultraconservative man from Mississippi)? It seems unlikely that James meant the story to be ambiguous. Which leaves two possibilities: that the novel is badly written or that James and I are not on the same wavelength. Since James is universally acclaimed as "The Master", I guess I am left with only one option. In my defense, I can only say that none of the 7 or 8 other people at the book group for which I read this novel had a particulary convincing interpretation either.

If this is intended as satire, in my view it does not display the "delicacy and wit" attributed to it in the blurb. The portraits of Olive and Basil are more in the line of broad caricature. Examples:

Olive to Verena: "You don't dislike men as a class."

Basil to Olive: "I consider women have no business to be reasonable."

In fact, both with regard to characters and plot, this book is more in the Dickens vein. Interestingly, like many (most?) of Dickens' novels, this story was serialized. And one can tell: it has an up-and-down emotional tone, with continuous exaggerated emotional jolts. Hardly the subtle writing that I was expecting (personal disclosure: this is the first Henry James novel that I have read). And the ending is horrid! Clumsily written and heavyhandedly provocative -- definitely not witty and delicate satire.

There is much good writing in this novel, concise and colorful. But it is overshadowed by much bilious prose -- strings of 4 and 5 adjectives in a row occur several times; and there are many sentences that run on far too long, dragged down by multiple long clauses which require them to be artifically resuscitated.

It appears that this novel came in James' middle period, which was not his best. So I will try one more. But not just yet.

However, I must admit that James was prescient about our current political scene. At one point Verena thinks about Basil: "She didn't know that being a conservative could make a person so aggressive and unmerciful." Unfortunately, she doesn't take this insight to heart, leading to her downfall. ...less

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1 comment

Liza

Liza rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

12/03/07

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: Bostonians, funnies, spinsters, people who don't know what's good for them but wish they did

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 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 ...more

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Patricia

Patricia rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

01/20/08

bookshelves: classics

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: the young and impressionable.

Well,I just finished reading it not five minutes ago. Henry James has a rich writing style. He is supremely eloquent. However, the downside to this is that at times he is verbose and melodramatic. I don't know if it is the setting of the novel or the time in which it was written... the the characters' fits of emotion became predictable by the end of the novel.

There was so much conflict leading up to the last page of the novel that I feared that the ending would be a disappointment. I...more Well,I just finished reading it not five minutes ago. Henry James has a rich writing style. He is supremely eloquent. However, the downside to this is that at times he is verbose and melodramatic. I don't know if it is the setting of the novel or the time in which it was written... the the characters' fits of emotion became predictable by the end of the novel.

There was so much conflict leading up to the last page of the novel that I feared that the ending would be a disappointment. I didn't think it was a disappointment at all. Although I think that James seemed to anticipate that that it would be hard to satisfy any reader after all the building up to the end. That is why I believe he ended the events of the novel and then let readers interpret the events for themselves. I can't decide if this is cowardly or if he intended for us to hang in the air wondering about the future lives of Verena and Basel.

As for the subject matter of the novel... I had a difficult time relating to the zeal of the Bostonians' feminist beliefs. I do not believe as Olive does that women are superior or that men serve no purpose in humanity. I do believe that men and women are equal.

I felt that it would have been easier to follow the feminists within the novel if they had actually lived lives along side women who suffered, or had experienced any suffering themselves. The character's spoke of inequalities but they never expressed their personal experiences with inequality. It made their arguments seem vain and superficial, and it made them seem unqualified to take up the charge for the emancipation of women. The Bostonians declared that they spoke for women who were silent... who were these silent women... why were they never presented in the novel?

I do want to make one point regarding Verena... she was manipulated throughout the entire book. I do not think it was men controlling her. I think that Olive was calculating and manipulative, her parents and Mr. Pardon wanted to exploit her and Ransom wanted to keep her for himself. I think that unfortunately for Verena she was an innocent child who desired only to please, and for this almost everyone took advantage of her. She should read the book "how to say no without feeling guilty". She needed to learn that with every decision we make there are trade-offs. James is clever by never letting you know if the trade-offs that she chose to make were worth it.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Henry James presentation of the characters. As a reader it was fun to join their stream of consciousness. I felt like a snoop and I loved every second of it....less

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Kelly

Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

09/17/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: James fans who want to see a new side of their boy!

Newsflash: Henry James is funny! Seriously, he likes to laugh. And he's good at it. Who knew? The opening of this book reads like a farce, a comedy of manners, a vicious taking apart of characters worthy of Oscar Wilde. It does diminish and get rather more serious over the course of the novel, but it never entirely goes away. Henry's vicious! In a good way. I mean, you may feel a little bad as he chooses to rip into the feminist movement as a target, but at least his chosen characters fully dese...more

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3 comments

Nate

Nate rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

03/25/08

A tense, sometimes funny, ultimately sad, but always wordy,love triangle. Two awful people trying to step on the same perfect flower.

Henry James was doing his thing before the whole "iceberg" theory of fiction came about. There's not a lot of "submerged" story. Instead he drops the whole damn iceberg on your lap and points out to you inch by inch its various icy pits, bumps, and fissures. Yes, that kind of detail, which manifests itself in pages and pages blackene...more

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Christianne

Christianne rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

12/31/08

bookshelves: fiction

I've also read Portrait of a Lady, but the Bostonians is my favorite. I liked learning about the early women's rights movement and the country in general after the Civil War. I also liked the character drama. It is a book that gets me all worked up, because of the mistakes the characters make in their judgments.

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Marguerite

Marguerite rated it:

(review of isbn 0140437665)

04/07/08

Read in January, 2006

My friend Bernie chided me for never having read James, his favorite author. I took his criticism to heart and bought two of James' classics with a B&N gift certificate I won for playing nicely with co-workers. Maybe this was a bad introduction, but it struck me as tedious characters in search of a story: Hundreds of pages, and nothing happens. I finished it out of a sense of duty, but it felt like penance. I have a virgin copy of The Portrait of a Lady on my bedroom bookshelf, and I hurry p...more

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Justin

Justin rated it:

(review of isbn 0192834428)

07/15/07

Read in July, 2007

Geez, this book sticks in your craw. Not exactly a feel-good story but in reality an impressive dive into the complexities of human and social nature. The bad guy wins and the bad guy (gal) loses, everyone's unhappy (except Basil, but he's mor eor less unhappy in general). I suppose it also has great insight into the transformation of American (or New England) intellectual culture in the late nineteenth century but that probably holds little relevance or interest to the general reader. Enjoy...more

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rr added it (review of isbn 0812969960)

09/15/08

I was scared of Henry James for a long time. I took The Bostonians on a trip to Death Valley (an unlikely juxtapositioning!) and was surprised when I found myself laughing out loud while reading it at night in my hotel room. Who knew that Henry James had a keen sense of humor? Maybe everyone knows that--but I was glad to discover it, if sadly late in my life. But much of The Bostonians is not humorous. In fact, it's a nuanced exploration of the conflicts that arise from social demands on wo...more

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Blaise

Blaise rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

11/30/07

Read in November, 2007

This book poses a very interesting struggle between a New England feminist of the time and an extremely conservative Southern lawyer. They are struggling to win over a woman in her early twenties who is very talented and capable. The ensuing clash is told by James masterfully, focusing on the psycological struggles of all three characters. James does a fantastic job at helping the reader empathize with all three characters, which keeps things fascinating to the last page.

One oth...more

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Hillary

Hillary rated it:

(review of isbn 0460874934)

09/19/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: completists, politically minded folks

This one is more interesting than enjoyable within the James oeuvre. I have mixed feelings when I look back on it. Of course, a lot of times that has to do with class discussion and how it went, but I still think it could lose a hundred pages quite easily, and I wouldn't say that about every long book. It's very strongly felt on the part of each of your two main characters, and it's an intriguing love triangle. Really, you can probably read it quite well in dialogue with _The Wings of the Dove_,...more

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MissCrystal

MissCrystal rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

06/04/07

Read in June, 2001

recommends it for: insomniacs

I was an English major in college and loved James' The Turn of the Screw, but this book was one of the most miserable reading experiences of my life! I had to read it for a class, and found it so painfully boring and tedious that I literally almost cried every time I had to pick this sucker up. I made it through the whole friggin' thing, and keep it on my bookshelf at home as a reminder that no matter how bad of a day I'm having, at least I don't have to read this book ever again!

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Ferris

Ferris rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

11/08/08

Read in November, 2008

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 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."

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Heather

Heather rated it:

(review of isbn 0192834428)

09/29/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

so far i don't like this book.
i don't like james.
he does FAR too much self-indulgent naval-gazing for my attention span or patience. i also strongly object to his interjection of his own opinion (or some unknown speaker) into his work. it is extremely disruptive.
that being said, he is truly a master of what he does - building tension and suggesting problems without you ever realizing he is doing it.

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Jason

Jason rated it:

(review of isbn 0812969960)

08/20/08

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Jason by: Maren
recommends it for: Anyone over 14

Henry James is my hero. I've never read any other author who creates conversation for a reader like James. The pace is perfect. The ambiguity is perfect. Characterization that makes me feel like I'm using my own senses... and then there's the content. I never understand issues with the depth James does... and even if I did, could I communicate my understanding? Not like this. Six stars!

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Theresa

Theresa rated it:

(review of isbn 0192834428)

09/23/07

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Long-winded people

I really can't get over Henry James. I believe the entirety of this book could really be condensed into about two chapters, sans all of James's absurdly long descriptions of absolutely irrelevant details. Unfortunate, really. It had an intriguing plot and unique characterization. You just have to literally hack away at the book before you can get to them.

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