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The Bostonians
Nearly a century before the birth of the contemporary feminist movement, Henry James dealt with its nineteenth-cetnure forerunner in The Bostonians. Mixing acute social observation and psychological analysis with mordant humor, James hangs his story on a unique instance of the traditional romantic triangle. At its apex stands the vibrantly beautiful Verena Tarrant, an intense public speaker who arouses the passions of two very different people. Olive Chancellor, a Boston-bred suffragette, dreams of turning Verena into a fiery campaigner for women's rights. Basil Ransom, a Mississippi-bred lawyer, dreams of turning her into his wife. As these two struggle for possession of Verena's soul--and body--their confusion, crises, and conflicts begin almost preternaturally to prefigure today's sexual politics. In fact, James's complex portrait of Olive and her ideals, savagely satirical yet sympathetic and so controversial when it first appeared, continues to evoke both anger and admiration. But James treats Verena and Basil with equal complexity, climaxed by the novel's quietly haunting final sentence.
414 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1886
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About the author
Henry James
4,598 books3,955 followersHenry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."
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December 1, 2024At first glance, The Bostonians is as impenetrable as a closed circle. Everything in the story seems designed to keep the reader out: there is little action and few characters the reader can care for, and the one or two interesting ones disappear from the narrative for long stretches. The background of the story, the rise of reform movements in the US in the nineteenth century, and specifically in the 'reform city' of Boston, has great potential, but is instead obscured by the personal dilemmas and odd agendas of the main character, the rather grim Olive Chancellor, whose smile, on the rare occasions it appears, is likened to a thin ray of moonlight resting upon the wall of a prison. Spending a number of pages in Olive Chancellor's sole company might well be the lowest point of my Henry James reading season.
I'm always on the lookout for an angle I can use in a review, but though I persevered stoically with this book, I wasn't having much luck, hardly even finding a quote worth noting until I reached the half way point, page 180 to be exact, where I came across something that seemed to offer a generous angle—plus a quotable sentence that summed up my own situation very aptly: I was on the point of saying that a happy chance had favoured Basil Ransom, but it occurs to me that one is under no obligation to call chances by flattering epithets when they have been waited for so long. The 'happy chance' that Ransom—and myself—had waited for so long was the reappearance of one of those interesting minor characters who'd disappeared from the narrative early on: Miss Birdseye. She stopped on the sidewalk, and looked vaguely about her, in the manner of a person waiting for an omnibus or a street-car; she had a dingy, loosely-habited air, as if she had worn her clothes for many years and yet was even now imperfectly acquainted with them; a large, benignant face, caged in by the glass of her spectacles, which seemed to cover it almost equally everywhere, and a fat, rusty satchel, which hung low at her side, as if it wearied her.
Miss Birdseye reminded me of something I'd been noticing in other Henry James books: James never repeats a character. Every book has a large cast and I haven't once found myself thinking I'd met any of them before. He must have created hundreds of original characters, some of them minor admittedly, but all fully developed, all 'visible' to the reader. I'm almost tempted to create an inventory.
In this book alone, there's already quite a group, and their diversity, whether we warm to them or not, is impressive—and great material for a review. Early on we meet a mesmeric healer by the name of Selah Tarrant, a man with great ambitions in the area of Reform if he could but find a platform to promote them: his ideal of bliss was to be as regularly and indispensably a component part of the newspaper as the title and date, or the list of fires, or the column of Western jokes. The vision of that publicity haunted his dreams, and he would gladly have sacrificed to it the innermost sanctities of home. Human existence to him, indeed, was a huge publicity, in which the only fault was that it was sometimes not sufficiently effective.
Tarrant's daughter Verena is an 'inspirational' speaker on the rights of women, and the crux of the novel revolves around Verena's access to the publicity so valued by her father. Verena herself is quite a character, by turns both charismatic and off-putting. Her mother is equally odd, being horribly annoying and annoyingly ingratiating. Nothing I'd previously read by Henry James had prepared me for the Tarrant family.
Another of the characters on the campaign trail is the formidable Mrs Farrinder who refrains from stepping onto the platform unless she's guaranteed to meet resistance from the audience: “I only rise to the occasion when I see prejudice, when I see bigotry, when I see injustice, when I see conservatism, massed before me like an army. Then I feel as I imagine Napoleon Bonaparte to have felt on the eve of one of his great victories. I must have unfriendly elements—I like to win them over.”
Basil Ransom, Southern ex-plantation owner, does duty as the 'unfriendly element'. He is completely alien to the general philosophy of the Reformers and offers a sharp contrast to their zealotry. His reentering the narrative at the half way point, just before Miss Birdseye, was very welcome—his cynical view of the world added some necessary tension to the story.
A second 'unfriendly element' is Mrs Luna, Olive Chancellor's widowed sister. Viewed by Ransom, she appears sufficiently pretty; her hair was in clusters of curls, like bunches of grapes; her tight bodice seemed to crack with her vivacity; and from beneath the stiff little plaits of her petticoat a small fat foot protruded, resting upon a stilted heel. She was attractive and impertinent, especially the latter.
It might be fairer to give her a chance to speak for herself: I am glad I haven’t opinions that prevent my dressing in the evening!” she declared from the doorway. “The amount of thought they give to their clothing, the people who are afraid of looking frivolous!”
Though she flits in and out of the story, and is generally more out than in, she's entertaining whenever she appears. In fact, she's a character right out of a restoration comedy, a younger version of Lady Wishfort.
Even in the case of characters who have only very slight roles, Henry James invests time and attention, as in the description of New Yorker Mrs Burrage who makes some brief but impressive appearances in the narrative. She was a woman of society, large and voluminous, fair (in complexion) and regularly ugly, looking as if she ought to be slow and rather heavy, but disappointing this expectation by a quick, amused utterance, a short, bright, summary laugh, with which she appeared to dispose of the joke (whatever it was) for ever, and an air of recognising on the instant everything she saw and heard. She was evidently accustomed to talk, and even to listen, if not kept waiting too long for details and parentheses; she was not continuous, but frequent, as it were, and you could see that she hated explanations, though it was not to be supposed that she had anything to fear from them.
Then there's Dr Prance, also a minor character, but one of my favourites. “Men and women are all the same to me,” Doctor Prance remarked. “I don’t see any difference. There is room for improvement in both sexes. Neither of them is up to the standard.” And on Ransom’s asking her what the standard appeared to her to be, she said, “Well, they ought to live better; that’s what they ought to do.” And she went on to declare, further, that she thought they all talked too much. This had so long been Ransom’s conviction that his heart quite warmed to Doctor Prance, and he paid homage to her wisdom in the manner of Mississippi with a richness of compliment that made her turn her acute, suspicious eye upon him.
You have to love Dr Prance.
Thinking about the skill with which Henry James creates and describes his characters reminds me of something he wrote in the appendix to The Golden Bowl. He was referring to the decision by the publishers of the 1909 New York edition of his collected works, to include illustrations. He was clearly thrown by the suggestion that they wanted to add 'pictures by another's hand' to his own 'pictures': Anything that relieves responsible prose of the duty of being good enough, interesting enough and, if the question be of picture, pictorial enough, above all in itself, does it the worst of services, and may well inspire in the lover of literature certain lively questions as to the future of that institution..
The compromise reached in the end was for the illustrations to remain at the most small pictures of our stage with the actors left out.
He gives us the actors in detailed word pictures. There is no need for further illustrations.
I'm always on the lookout for an angle I can use in a review, but though I persevered stoically with this book, I wasn't having much luck, hardly even finding a quote worth noting until I reached the half way point, page 180 to be exact, where I came across something that seemed to offer a generous angle—plus a quotable sentence that summed up my own situation very aptly: I was on the point of saying that a happy chance had favoured Basil Ransom, but it occurs to me that one is under no obligation to call chances by flattering epithets when they have been waited for so long. The 'happy chance' that Ransom—and myself—had waited for so long was the reappearance of one of those interesting minor characters who'd disappeared from the narrative early on: Miss Birdseye. She stopped on the sidewalk, and looked vaguely about her, in the manner of a person waiting for an omnibus or a street-car; she had a dingy, loosely-habited air, as if she had worn her clothes for many years and yet was even now imperfectly acquainted with them; a large, benignant face, caged in by the glass of her spectacles, which seemed to cover it almost equally everywhere, and a fat, rusty satchel, which hung low at her side, as if it wearied her.
Miss Birdseye reminded me of something I'd been noticing in other Henry James books: James never repeats a character. Every book has a large cast and I haven't once found myself thinking I'd met any of them before. He must have created hundreds of original characters, some of them minor admittedly, but all fully developed, all 'visible' to the reader. I'm almost tempted to create an inventory.
In this book alone, there's already quite a group, and their diversity, whether we warm to them or not, is impressive—and great material for a review. Early on we meet a mesmeric healer by the name of Selah Tarrant, a man with great ambitions in the area of Reform if he could but find a platform to promote them: his ideal of bliss was to be as regularly and indispensably a component part of the newspaper as the title and date, or the list of fires, or the column of Western jokes. The vision of that publicity haunted his dreams, and he would gladly have sacrificed to it the innermost sanctities of home. Human existence to him, indeed, was a huge publicity, in which the only fault was that it was sometimes not sufficiently effective.
Tarrant's daughter Verena is an 'inspirational' speaker on the rights of women, and the crux of the novel revolves around Verena's access to the publicity so valued by her father. Verena herself is quite a character, by turns both charismatic and off-putting. Her mother is equally odd, being horribly annoying and annoyingly ingratiating. Nothing I'd previously read by Henry James had prepared me for the Tarrant family.
Another of the characters on the campaign trail is the formidable Mrs Farrinder who refrains from stepping onto the platform unless she's guaranteed to meet resistance from the audience: “I only rise to the occasion when I see prejudice, when I see bigotry, when I see injustice, when I see conservatism, massed before me like an army. Then I feel as I imagine Napoleon Bonaparte to have felt on the eve of one of his great victories. I must have unfriendly elements—I like to win them over.”
Basil Ransom, Southern ex-plantation owner, does duty as the 'unfriendly element'. He is completely alien to the general philosophy of the Reformers and offers a sharp contrast to their zealotry. His reentering the narrative at the half way point, just before Miss Birdseye, was very welcome—his cynical view of the world added some necessary tension to the story.
A second 'unfriendly element' is Mrs Luna, Olive Chancellor's widowed sister. Viewed by Ransom, she appears sufficiently pretty; her hair was in clusters of curls, like bunches of grapes; her tight bodice seemed to crack with her vivacity; and from beneath the stiff little plaits of her petticoat a small fat foot protruded, resting upon a stilted heel. She was attractive and impertinent, especially the latter.
It might be fairer to give her a chance to speak for herself: I am glad I haven’t opinions that prevent my dressing in the evening!” she declared from the doorway. “The amount of thought they give to their clothing, the people who are afraid of looking frivolous!”
Though she flits in and out of the story, and is generally more out than in, she's entertaining whenever she appears. In fact, she's a character right out of a restoration comedy, a younger version of Lady Wishfort.
Even in the case of characters who have only very slight roles, Henry James invests time and attention, as in the description of New Yorker Mrs Burrage who makes some brief but impressive appearances in the narrative. She was a woman of society, large and voluminous, fair (in complexion) and regularly ugly, looking as if she ought to be slow and rather heavy, but disappointing this expectation by a quick, amused utterance, a short, bright, summary laugh, with which she appeared to dispose of the joke (whatever it was) for ever, and an air of recognising on the instant everything she saw and heard. She was evidently accustomed to talk, and even to listen, if not kept waiting too long for details and parentheses; she was not continuous, but frequent, as it were, and you could see that she hated explanations, though it was not to be supposed that she had anything to fear from them.
Then there's Dr Prance, also a minor character, but one of my favourites. “Men and women are all the same to me,” Doctor Prance remarked. “I don’t see any difference. There is room for improvement in both sexes. Neither of them is up to the standard.” And on Ransom’s asking her what the standard appeared to her to be, she said, “Well, they ought to live better; that’s what they ought to do.” And she went on to declare, further, that she thought they all talked too much. This had so long been Ransom’s conviction that his heart quite warmed to Doctor Prance, and he paid homage to her wisdom in the manner of Mississippi with a richness of compliment that made her turn her acute, suspicious eye upon him.
You have to love Dr Prance.
Thinking about the skill with which Henry James creates and describes his characters reminds me of something he wrote in the appendix to The Golden Bowl. He was referring to the decision by the publishers of the 1909 New York edition of his collected works, to include illustrations. He was clearly thrown by the suggestion that they wanted to add 'pictures by another's hand' to his own 'pictures': Anything that relieves responsible prose of the duty of being good enough, interesting enough and, if the question be of picture, pictorial enough, above all in itself, does it the worst of services, and may well inspire in the lover of literature certain lively questions as to the future of that institution..
The compromise reached in the end was for the illustrations to remain at the most small pictures of our stage with the actors left out.
He gives us the actors in detailed word pictures. There is no need for further illustrations.
October 20, 2015
Ransom's the name -Basil Ransom. Status, bachelor. Occupation : general brokerage, whatever the hell that means. Occupation at the moment - just having fun. Let me tell you about my evening. It was last evening. The one before this one.
What a politico-literary gathering that was. The drinks were loaded and so were the dolls. I narrowed my eyes and poured a stiff Manhattan and then I saw...Verena Tarrant! What a dame, a big, bountiful babe in the region of 38-23-36. One hell of a region. She was talking up some of that feminism thing like they do these days, and she was giving out that sexy librarian vibe. She was so hot I had to stand back for fear of being burned. My cousin Olive Chancellor introduced us. "I’ve heard of you” she said. “They say you're wanted in fifteen states.” “Could be” I quipped. “But notwithstanding, as of this particular instant in time I want to be wanted in just one state, the state I’m in now, this one, right here, right now, you dig sister?” I hoped she followed the complicated syntax of my sentence. Some of these feminists don’t. I’ve noticed that. There was a hint of first edition Proust coming off of her underclothing. It was driving me crazy. She said, "Johnny, feminism is a deadly game. You have a few laughs and you go home. You can’t win." My eyes narrowed even further (they were narrow to begin with, but women like that. I’ve noticed.) “I like a challenge” I said. I felt my way towards another subjunctive clause. I was sure I'd find Verena somewhere in the middle of it.
What a politico-literary gathering that was. The drinks were loaded and so were the dolls. I narrowed my eyes and poured a stiff Manhattan and then I saw...Verena Tarrant! What a dame, a big, bountiful babe in the region of 38-23-36. One hell of a region. She was talking up some of that feminism thing like they do these days, and she was giving out that sexy librarian vibe. She was so hot I had to stand back for fear of being burned. My cousin Olive Chancellor introduced us. "I’ve heard of you” she said. “They say you're wanted in fifteen states.” “Could be” I quipped. “But notwithstanding, as of this particular instant in time I want to be wanted in just one state, the state I’m in now, this one, right here, right now, you dig sister?” I hoped she followed the complicated syntax of my sentence. Some of these feminists don’t. I’ve noticed that. There was a hint of first edition Proust coming off of her underclothing. It was driving me crazy. She said, "Johnny, feminism is a deadly game. You have a few laughs and you go home. You can’t win." My eyes narrowed even further (they were narrow to begin with, but women like that. I’ve noticed.) “I like a challenge” I said. I felt my way towards another subjunctive clause. I was sure I'd find Verena somewhere in the middle of it.
September 5, 2021
It is hard to root for anyone in this novel. I sympathize with Olive's passion as a suffragette but not her wish to control her protégé, Verena. Verena's suitor Basil is worse because he wants to dominate and believes her role should be to serve him. And Verena is a malleable young woman who has no will of her own - nor any sense of where her best interests lie.
I don't need likable characters and really enjoyed this novel for its satirical sharpness. Perhaps the character I liked best was Dr. Prance, a pragmatic female physician who declares to Basil, "Men and women are all the same to me. I don't see any difference. There is room for improvement in both sexes. Neither of them is up to the standard."
I don't need likable characters and really enjoyed this novel for its satirical sharpness. Perhaps the character I liked best was Dr. Prance, a pragmatic female physician who declares to Basil, "Men and women are all the same to me. I don't see any difference. There is room for improvement in both sexes. Neither of them is up to the standard."
September 18, 2007
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 deserve it. (I will warn you that you will be thinking of creative ways for Olive Chancellor to die after the first fifty pages or so. Or wishing that James sent her to a lesbian whorehouse to work out her issues. Man.) And to be fair, it isn't just the feminists he attacks. He attacks everyone! But not only attack. He does make the characters complex. Olive's a fascinating study in repressed homosexuality, Verena's a beautiful contradiction that represents a question of what is more important in life, Basil Ransom is a really attractive bastard who might not be totally wrong in his outlook on life.
As another note, his style here is very different from Portrait of a Lady. He spends more time describing ambiance, environment, surroundings, than is his reputation. And when his turn of phrase turns much more towards the witty and clever, it definitely sacrifices the tone that he created in Portrait and from what I understand, the majority of his other works.
Unexpected page turner. I picked it up and put it down, but once I picked it up again, I'd read 50 pages in a blink.
Once again: Henry James has a sense of humor! No, seriously. You have to read this to believe me. It's amazing!
As another note, his style here is very different from Portrait of a Lady. He spends more time describing ambiance, environment, surroundings, than is his reputation. And when his turn of phrase turns much more towards the witty and clever, it definitely sacrifices the tone that he created in Portrait and from what I understand, the majority of his other works.
Unexpected page turner. I picked it up and put it down, but once I picked it up again, I'd read 50 pages in a blink.
Once again: Henry James has a sense of humor! No, seriously. You have to read this to believe me. It's amazing!
February 4, 2018
Εκτιμώ λίγο παραπάνω τα βιβλία που με κάνουν να μιλάω μόνος. (Και εξηγούμαι: είναι η στιγμή όπου το βιβλίο έχει καταφέρει να σε απορροφήσει πλήρως και τότε ένας χαρακτήρας κάνει/λέει κάτι συνταρακτικό, οπότε σου ξεφεύγει στον αέρα ένα "Οχιιιι, μην το κάνεις!" ή ένα "Ναιιι" κλπ) Με τις Βοστονέζες μου ξέφυγαν πολλές (παρόμοιες) φράσεις.
Λίγο μετά τον εμφύλιο πόλεμο της Αμερικής, σε μια περίοδο πολιτικής αναδόμησης, όπου παράλληλα εμφανίζονται οι πρώτες φεμινιστικές κινητοποιήσεις , ένας συντηρητικός νεαρός τζέντλεμαν, ερωτεύεται μια από τις ομιλήτριες και εκπροσώπου�� του παραπάνω κινήματος. Ανάμεσα στον έρωτα του, μπαίνει η ξαδέρφη του, η οποία τρέφει ισχυρά φιλικά(?) αισθήματα για την νεαρή κοπέλα, όπου παροτρύνει συνεχώς να εγκαταλείψει κάθε ιδέα περί γάμου και να συγκεντρωθεί στον ιερό σκοπό τους.
Δεν γίνεται να μην διασκεδάσεις με το ιδιαίτερο τρίγωνο που σχηματίζεται ανάμεσα τους και με τους διαφορετικούς τρόπους όπου διεκδικούν και προσεγγίζουν και οι δύο την νεαρή κοπέλα. Αξιοσημείωτο είναι ότι δεν μπορείς να διαλέξεις πλευρά και δύσκολα θα υποστηρίξεις έναν μόνο από τους δύο σε όλη την διάρκεια του βιβλίου.(Τουλάχιστον εγώ αμφιταλαντεύτηκα αρκετά).
Πέρα όμως από την απολαυστική ερωτική ιστορία, το βιβλίο αποκτάει άλλη υπόσταση όταν συνειδητοποιήσεις την αλληγορία που κρύβεται πίσω από κάθε χαρακτήρα. Όταν καταλάβεις τι εκπροσωπεί ο συντηρητικός τζέντλεμαν, η μαχητική φεμινίστρια, η αφελής κοπέλα και για ποιο λόγο μάχονται.
Η αλήθεια είναι ότι άργησα να καταλάβω το πνεύμα του βιβλίου αλλά μετά από λίγα κεφάλαια συνειδητοποίησα γιατί οι εκδόσεις Gutenberg συμπεριέλαβαν τον παρόν βιβλίο στην εκπληκτική σειρά Orbis Literae.
Διαβάστε το!
Λίγο μετά τον εμφύλιο πόλεμο της Αμερικής, σε μια περίοδο πολιτικής αναδόμησης, όπου παράλληλα εμφανίζονται οι πρώτες φεμινιστικές κινητοποιήσεις , ένας συντηρητικός νεαρός τζέντλεμαν, ερωτεύεται μια από τις ομιλήτριες και εκπροσώπου�� του παραπάνω κινήματος. Ανάμεσα στον έρωτα του, μπαίνει η ξαδέρφη του, η οποία τρέφει ισχυρά φιλικά(?) αισθήματα για την νεαρή κοπέλα, όπου παροτρύνει συνεχώς να εγκαταλείψει κάθε ιδέα περί γάμου και να συγκεντρωθεί στον ιερό σκοπό τους.
Δεν γίνεται να μην διασκεδάσεις με το ιδιαίτερο τρίγωνο που σχηματίζεται ανάμεσα τους και με τους διαφορετικούς τρόπους όπου διεκδικούν και προσεγγίζουν και οι δύο την νεαρή κοπέλα. Αξιοσημείωτο είναι ότι δεν μπορείς να διαλέξεις πλευρά και δύσκολα θα υποστηρίξεις έναν μόνο από τους δύο σε όλη την διάρκεια του βιβλίου.(Τουλάχιστον εγώ αμφιταλαντεύτηκα αρκετά).
Πέρα όμως από την απολαυστική ερωτική ιστορία, το βιβλίο αποκτάει άλλη υπόσταση όταν συνειδητοποιήσεις την αλληγορία που κρύβεται πίσω από κάθε χαρακτήρα. Όταν καταλάβεις τι εκπροσωπεί ο συντηρητικός τζέντλεμαν, η μαχητική φεμινίστρια, η αφελής κοπέλα και για ποιο λόγο μάχονται.
Η αλήθεια είναι ότι άργησα να καταλάβω το πνεύμα του βιβλίου αλλά μετά από λίγα κεφάλαια συνειδητοποίησα γιατί οι εκδόσεις Gutenberg συμπεριέλαβαν τον παρόν βιβλίο στην εκπληκτική σειρά Orbis Literae.
Διαβάστε το!
November 3, 2019
Verena Tarrant, a talented mouthpiece for whoever’s views, falls in with rabid proto-feminist sourpuss Olive Chancellor and her circle of female-emancipating spinsters, much to the mirth of her crooked parents. Into this awkward tableau walks Mississippian antihero Basil Ransom, a classic republican who prefers his women shutting up and looking cute in corsets and praising the thickness of his whiskers. Across the sprawl of this incisive and engorged masterpiece, the power dynamic between the sexes and the setting is explored in riveting waves of plump, pristine over-explanatory prose.
November 3, 2018
The Bostonians (1885-86) falls more or less in the middle of Henry James’s career as a novelist, ten years after his breezy debut, Roderick Hudson and sixteen years before The Wings of a Dove. Its nearest chronology-mate is The Princess Casamassima, with which it shares its unusual (for James) political theme. The Princess Casamassima is set in revolutionary socialist circles in London; The Bostonians, in radical feminist circles in Boston and New York.
Both of these ‘political’ novels are striking for their lack of knowledge and interest in the actual ideas the political groups represented might hold. The socialists of The Princess Casamassima discuss political theory less, and in less detail, than any group of radicals known within the history of man, while the feminists of The Bostonians seem to limit their analysis to long evenings of weepily considering how very, very horrid men have been to women throughout history. For a novel of this period that actually engages with the ideas and ideals of the nineteenth-century feminist movement, I would decidedly recommend Gissing’s 1893, London-set The Odd Women over The Bostonians. Gissing is fascinated by ideas, and he handles them well within fiction. James isn’t that kind of novelist at all.
Where James excels is in the nebulous world of feelings and impulses and sensations, and he has plenty to work on, very absorbingly, in this novel. The settings are very fine: radical, shabby-chic Boston (I’m thinking of the splendid early soirée at Miss Birdseye’s in particular); glossy, voracious New York (the half-way-through soirée at Mrs Burrage’s); and the austere, gently declining Cape Cod resort town Marmion, evoked in a painterly manner, through its evanescent light effects and barely-there seascapes.
I enjoyed the characters of the novel, as well, who are sharply and often satirically drawn. The nervous, highly-strung, fastidious, emotionally needy Boston feminist Olive Chancellor came alive for me, probably more than the other two figures in the central triangle of the novel: down-at-heel Mississippian would-be lawyer and would-be conservative essayist Basil Ransom, and young, beautiful, eloquent Verena Tarrant, conscripted first by her father and then by Olive as an inspirational feminist speaker, and romantically pursued by Ransom for motives in which the erotic and the ideological combine. The more minor Bostonian figures are a lot of fun: the vague, kind, shambling octogenarian reformer Miss Birdseye (whom initial American readers were outraged to suspect was a portrait of a real figure, Elizabeth Peabody); and the scene-stealing, no-nonsense Dr Mary Prance.
Above all, perhaps, what fascinated me in this novel was its use of the post Civil War context to lend poignancy and depth to its political theme and its emotional narrative. The novel begins in the shadow of the war, when Olive welcomes Basil—a distant cousin—into her Bostonian home, having invited him for a visit in a spirit of reconciliation (which rapidly dissolves as soon as she gets to know him). Both have suffered in the conflict, Olive having lost two brothers, while Basil has lost his family wealth and his prospects. The recentness of the war and the rawness of its memories are buried for much of the novel subsequently, but we never quite allowed to forget them. A pivotal scene—for me, one of the finest, and most complex and charged episodes in the novel—is that where Verena takes Basil to visit the newly built Memorial Hall at Harvard, commemorating the university’s war dead of the Union, but not the Confederacy, side.
Both of these ‘political’ novels are striking for their lack of knowledge and interest in the actual ideas the political groups represented might hold. The socialists of The Princess Casamassima discuss political theory less, and in less detail, than any group of radicals known within the history of man, while the feminists of The Bostonians seem to limit their analysis to long evenings of weepily considering how very, very horrid men have been to women throughout history. For a novel of this period that actually engages with the ideas and ideals of the nineteenth-century feminist movement, I would decidedly recommend Gissing’s 1893, London-set The Odd Women over The Bostonians. Gissing is fascinated by ideas, and he handles them well within fiction. James isn’t that kind of novelist at all.
Where James excels is in the nebulous world of feelings and impulses and sensations, and he has plenty to work on, very absorbingly, in this novel. The settings are very fine: radical, shabby-chic Boston (I’m thinking of the splendid early soirée at Miss Birdseye’s in particular); glossy, voracious New York (the half-way-through soirée at Mrs Burrage’s); and the austere, gently declining Cape Cod resort town Marmion, evoked in a painterly manner, through its evanescent light effects and barely-there seascapes.
I enjoyed the characters of the novel, as well, who are sharply and often satirically drawn. The nervous, highly-strung, fastidious, emotionally needy Boston feminist Olive Chancellor came alive for me, probably more than the other two figures in the central triangle of the novel: down-at-heel Mississippian would-be lawyer and would-be conservative essayist Basil Ransom, and young, beautiful, eloquent Verena Tarrant, conscripted first by her father and then by Olive as an inspirational feminist speaker, and romantically pursued by Ransom for motives in which the erotic and the ideological combine. The more minor Bostonian figures are a lot of fun: the vague, kind, shambling octogenarian reformer Miss Birdseye (whom initial American readers were outraged to suspect was a portrait of a real figure, Elizabeth Peabody); and the scene-stealing, no-nonsense Dr Mary Prance.
Above all, perhaps, what fascinated me in this novel was its use of the post Civil War context to lend poignancy and depth to its political theme and its emotional narrative. The novel begins in the shadow of the war, when Olive welcomes Basil—a distant cousin—into her Bostonian home, having invited him for a visit in a spirit of reconciliation (which rapidly dissolves as soon as she gets to know him). Both have suffered in the conflict, Olive having lost two brothers, while Basil has lost his family wealth and his prospects. The recentness of the war and the rawness of its memories are buried for much of the novel subsequently, but we never quite allowed to forget them. A pivotal scene—for me, one of the finest, and most complex and charged episodes in the novel—is that where Verena takes Basil to visit the newly built Memorial Hall at Harvard, commemorating the university’s war dead of the Union, but not the Confederacy, side.
October 26, 2017
' "Just sit down here and let me ask a simple question. Do you think any state of society can come to good that is based upon an organised wrong?" '
This book, somewhat unfairly, has a reputation as being James' satire on the early suffragette/feminist movement in 1880s Boston - I say unfairly because while it's without doubt poking lots of pointed fun at a lot of things, I don't think the question of giving women an equal education, vote and social voice is one of them. And, just to back up a moment, yes, this is James at his mercilessly wittiest best.
Set amongst a group of radical thinkers (feminists, vegetarians, faith healers) with differing agendas and levels of sincerity and authenticity - some genuinely work towards social change (Miss Birdseye, Dr Prance), others merely want money without conventional work (the mesmeric healer, Seleh Tarrant) or fame (the journalist, Mr Pardon) - this sets up a typically Jamesian confrontation build around Verena Tarrant: a young, beautiful feminist with a talent for charismatic speech-making.
On one side she is adopted by Olive Chancellor: a wealthy young woman who hates men and wants revenge on the sex for their oppression of women; on the other she is pursued by the handsome and charming southerner ('the Mississippian') Basil Ransome, fresh from the Civil War, whose southern 'gallantry' hides a pernicious view of gender relations: 'he had shown her a great deal while he sat there, especially what balderdash he thought it - the whole idea of women being equal to men.' Basil rounds off his ultra-reactionary views by denouncing the idea of universal education ('he thought the spread of education a gigantic farce') and pontificating on the effete way in which women are effeminising men: "the whole generation is womanised; the masculine tone is passing out of the world; it's a feminine, a nervous, hysterical, chattering, canting age". Anyone who thinks James is agreeing with or enforcing Ransome's views, perhaps needs to read this again.
What is up for exposure here are ideas of exploitation - many people want to 'own' Verena for differing reasons - even from those supposedly speaking out against it. Olive's motives are suspect, to some extent (though I'm not completely sure that I agree with readings which have her as a closet lesbian), but so are those of the supposedly progressive young Harvard students, and the more distasteful ways in which her family want to 'run' her (shades of the Kardashian parents here, perhaps?).
And what of Verena herself? It's a little hard to 'get' her - on one hand she's committed to her role as charismatic spokesperson of the suffragette movement; on the other, she falls in love with Ransome - a wonderfully Jamesian clash that mimics his more typical one between the values of 'old' Europe and 'young' America.
Ultimately, though, the ending leaves us in no doubt where James stands:
Within the sharp satire of the charlatans and hangers-on who gravitate towards radical politics, is a return to James' perennial interests in the vagaries and problems of how to build and sustain authentic personal relationships, how to live a 'fine' life in the face of all its problems.
September 3, 2014
I found The Bostonians repulsive on so many levels. Where to even begin...
James is creating a world where it seems he wants you to find certain things repulsive, and you do, as a 21st century reader, although not necessarily quite as he hopes. The novel opens with Basil Ransom, a gallant Mississippian, paying a visit to his Boston cousin, the austere but still young spinster Olive Chancellor. Olive has invited Basil north in the hopes that he will become interested in her widowed sister, Mrs. Luna, and that they will marry. Instead, Basil attends an evening salon featuring an impassioned oral recitation by Verena Tarrant, the young, beautiful daughter of a cheesy mesmerist, Selah Tarrant. This is one of those 19th century scenes where the father must place his hands on the daughter's head in order to stimulate her gift for speechifying. Basil finds the whole thing ridiculous, but is intrigued by Verena and slowly begins to fall in love with her. Olive is a fierce feminist and brings Verena under her wing. Olive is most likely a lesbian, which James hints at. She is also a sick, controlling, manipulative fuck, extracting a promise from Verena that Verena will never marry and will devote her life to the feminist cause. She expends much energy trying to keep Verena hidden from Basil.
I don't know if it's a lack of imagination on the part of James, or on the part of the 19th century in general, that feminism, the emancipation of women, had to be such a harsh, man-hating enterprise. Along with Olive's manipulativeness, this is part of what makes the novel repulsive. Olive writes a big check to Verena's parents in order to have Verena come live with her. She's buying Verena. A friendship does develop between the two, although given Olive's possessiveness and Verena's relative innocence, it's obviously not a partnership of equals. Nor is Basil, though appealing on some levels, exempt from the disgust a modern reader will feel; he is deeply anti-feminist, feeling that any gifts a woman has should be used in the home, for the husband's exclusive benefit. (Including Verena's gift for speechifying before large audiences...) Verena never loses her affection for Olive, but she begins to feel the pull of Ransom, and the novel concerns itself with who will win Verena.
I found the first 100-200 pages tough going, because everyone was so profoundly unappealing. However, in the last chapters it was hard to put down.
I see that A.S. Byatt finds a "blithe wit" herein. For her the novel is "wildly comic." I found it not a funny novel at all. Maybe it's hard to be disgusted and amused at the same time.
Oops, I bought this forgetting I already owned it. I do that sometimes.
Read
February 9, 20196/10
I’ve never been so glad to put down an HJ. Even though this rates higher than The Europeans, I disliked it so much more, but a proper dressing down will have to wait for another day.
I’ve never been so glad to put down an HJ. Even though this rates higher than The Europeans, I disliked it so much more, but a proper dressing down will have to wait for another day.
July 26, 2019
So you call yourself a SJ-Dubya, do ye? And you haven’t read Henry James, you say? ‘Aven’t read Los Bostonians, and you brag about being a well-read liberal from the Northeast? Leave it out, m8, really, because you’re takin the piss.
Not that you should feel lonesome in your distaste (distrust?) for all thangs HJ. The Bostonians took an absolute hammering from the critical establishment upon its release. Here are some tidbits I found on the internet (and yeah, I know, it aint so studious to cite stuff from Wikipedia, but it serves my point):
”[Actual] Bostonians resented its satire upon their intellectual and humanitary [sic] aspirations. They resented the author’s evident sympathy with his reactionary Southern hero. The Bostonians considered Miss Birdseye an insulting caricature… But probably most offensive to Boston propriety were the unmistakable indications of Lesbianism in the portrait of Olive Chancellor, which made it a violation of Boston decency and reticence.” ––Century Magazine 1885
HAH! ROFLMAO. Boston libs getting pissed because a book features a Lesbian protagonist… doesn’t that just reek of hypocrisy? And the bit about Miss Birdseye, I shan’t explain much by way of spoilage, but to say that she is the one progressive altruist that James views as true, in it for the real reason of wanting to help, and not for some other misguided pursuit (mostly of fame, but of love, and respect, too). So they really didn’t fucking get it. They got it 100% backward. As for our Southern hero, Basil Ransom, critics of the first edition seem to be as clueless as their modern day counterparts when it comes to understanding the difference between portraying a villain in a well-executed manner, and somehow embracing the causes and ethos of said bad-guy. If you can’t feel James’ heart breaking as he writes the ever more realistic Ransom, then ye be tone deaf, my brü #unluckymysun.
Of course James’ literary agent was probably pulling his hair out by the roots as he read this novel before publication. Did Henry really want to go after liberal white people, aka basically the only people who read novels? Didn’t he know that these progressive intellectuals are the most jealous of their hypocrisy; couldn’t he see that they are the ones who have made an entire industry of justifying their sins by proclaiming to “help the little guy”? Ha. What an unfortunate voice for the dispossessed. How could they have given James a good reception, or have understood the book? It was an utter takedown of their own ideological bullshit, and to add insult to injury, it wasn’t even James’ point to satire libs: he might have, and did, just as easily clown on male chauvinist pro-slavery cunts like Ransom; but oh yeah, I forgot, critics don’t think it’s possible to find nuance in these types of situations. One is either a good-guy or a deplora-bot. One is either on one side of the fence or the other, there is no in between, no bi-ideologues in literature, just like there aint no Lesbians in Boston. HUH?!
No, the point of The Bostonians isn’t to expose how hypocritical the Mrs Farranders and Olive Chancellors of the world are. It was clearly the result of a place: Boston and its environs of Charlsetown and Cambridge, the sultry August twilight and the rosy dusk of winter, that inspired Mr James to embark on this escapade. The reason for writing this book has more to do with the Romance writing of Hawthorne than it does VICE News or Breitfart. That the politically-conscious among us are so easily pricked only lends verisimilitude to the depictions of social realities within, but that wasn’t what I found most interesting. Instead, let’s unfurl a paragraph of sheer beauty delivered on page 135 of the Penguin Classics Edition, a passage with the poetry and brilliance of Cormac McCarthy:
"The western windows of Olive’s drawing-room, looking over the water, took in the red sunsets of winter; the long, low bridge that crawled, on its staggering posts, across the Charles; the casual patches of ice and snow; the desolate suburban horizons, peeled and made bald by the rigour of the season; the general hard, cold void of the prospect; the extrusion, at Charlestown, at Cambridge, of a few chimneys and steeples, straight sordid tubes of factories and engine-shops, or spare, heavenward finger of the New England meetinghouse. There was something inexorable in the poverty of the scene, shameful in the meanness of its details, which gave a collective impression of boards and tin and frozen earth, sheds and rotting piles, railway-lines striding flat across a thoroughfare of puddles, and tracks of the humbler, the universal horse-car, traversing obliquely this path of danger; loose fences, vacant lots, mounds of refuse, yards bestrewn with iron pipes, telegraph poles, and bare wooden backs of places. Vereena thought such a view lovely (bold mine), and she was by no means without excuse when, as the afternoon closed, the ugly picture was tinted with a clear, cold rosiness."
I could go on, as the passage continues for another page or so of true somber brilliance and dusky resplendence. For me, The Bostonians is more about the anecdotes of Vereena and Olive eating “tremendous amounts of ice cream” in Paris, of snuggling on the couch and talking philosophy while the maid throws another log on the fire, of Olive’s wishing Vereena would just float away and never return when she realizes that love for her—in a world where the woman she loves is straight and the progressive liberal city she lives in hates fags—is something that will always be unrequited; and it is finding a kind of humming euphoria in all this bleakness that makes this book a classic. It’s the beautiful language, the romantic demon on your shoulder, the lamps burning in the brown and yellow light of the end of day, and all of the attendant possibilities and daydreams. Ideology is meaningless to James, and I can understand that might offend some people, but the alternative environment is so much more lush, so much more beautiful for all of its hints of sadness, that when thrust side by side I wonder as to why anyone would ever vote again.
Not that you should feel lonesome in your distaste (distrust?) for all thangs HJ. The Bostonians took an absolute hammering from the critical establishment upon its release. Here are some tidbits I found on the internet (and yeah, I know, it aint so studious to cite stuff from Wikipedia, but it serves my point):
”[Actual] Bostonians resented its satire upon their intellectual and humanitary [sic] aspirations. They resented the author’s evident sympathy with his reactionary Southern hero. The Bostonians considered Miss Birdseye an insulting caricature… But probably most offensive to Boston propriety were the unmistakable indications of Lesbianism in the portrait of Olive Chancellor, which made it a violation of Boston decency and reticence.” ––Century Magazine 1885
HAH! ROFLMAO. Boston libs getting pissed because a book features a Lesbian protagonist… doesn’t that just reek of hypocrisy? And the bit about Miss Birdseye, I shan’t explain much by way of spoilage, but to say that she is the one progressive altruist that James views as true, in it for the real reason of wanting to help, and not for some other misguided pursuit (mostly of fame, but of love, and respect, too). So they really didn’t fucking get it. They got it 100% backward. As for our Southern hero, Basil Ransom, critics of the first edition seem to be as clueless as their modern day counterparts when it comes to understanding the difference between portraying a villain in a well-executed manner, and somehow embracing the causes and ethos of said bad-guy. If you can’t feel James’ heart breaking as he writes the ever more realistic Ransom, then ye be tone deaf, my brü #unluckymysun.
Of course James’ literary agent was probably pulling his hair out by the roots as he read this novel before publication. Did Henry really want to go after liberal white people, aka basically the only people who read novels? Didn’t he know that these progressive intellectuals are the most jealous of their hypocrisy; couldn’t he see that they are the ones who have made an entire industry of justifying their sins by proclaiming to “help the little guy”? Ha. What an unfortunate voice for the dispossessed. How could they have given James a good reception, or have understood the book? It was an utter takedown of their own ideological bullshit, and to add insult to injury, it wasn’t even James’ point to satire libs: he might have, and did, just as easily clown on male chauvinist pro-slavery cunts like Ransom; but oh yeah, I forgot, critics don’t think it’s possible to find nuance in these types of situations. One is either a good-guy or a deplora-bot. One is either on one side of the fence or the other, there is no in between, no bi-ideologues in literature, just like there aint no Lesbians in Boston. HUH?!
No, the point of The Bostonians isn’t to expose how hypocritical the Mrs Farranders and Olive Chancellors of the world are. It was clearly the result of a place: Boston and its environs of Charlsetown and Cambridge, the sultry August twilight and the rosy dusk of winter, that inspired Mr James to embark on this escapade. The reason for writing this book has more to do with the Romance writing of Hawthorne than it does VICE News or Breitfart. That the politically-conscious among us are so easily pricked only lends verisimilitude to the depictions of social realities within, but that wasn’t what I found most interesting. Instead, let’s unfurl a paragraph of sheer beauty delivered on page 135 of the Penguin Classics Edition, a passage with the poetry and brilliance of Cormac McCarthy:
"The western windows of Olive’s drawing-room, looking over the water, took in the red sunsets of winter; the long, low bridge that crawled, on its staggering posts, across the Charles; the casual patches of ice and snow; the desolate suburban horizons, peeled and made bald by the rigour of the season; the general hard, cold void of the prospect; the extrusion, at Charlestown, at Cambridge, of a few chimneys and steeples, straight sordid tubes of factories and engine-shops, or spare, heavenward finger of the New England meetinghouse. There was something inexorable in the poverty of the scene, shameful in the meanness of its details, which gave a collective impression of boards and tin and frozen earth, sheds and rotting piles, railway-lines striding flat across a thoroughfare of puddles, and tracks of the humbler, the universal horse-car, traversing obliquely this path of danger; loose fences, vacant lots, mounds of refuse, yards bestrewn with iron pipes, telegraph poles, and bare wooden backs of places. Vereena thought such a view lovely (bold mine), and she was by no means without excuse when, as the afternoon closed, the ugly picture was tinted with a clear, cold rosiness."
I could go on, as the passage continues for another page or so of true somber brilliance and dusky resplendence. For me, The Bostonians is more about the anecdotes of Vereena and Olive eating “tremendous amounts of ice cream” in Paris, of snuggling on the couch and talking philosophy while the maid throws another log on the fire, of Olive’s wishing Vereena would just float away and never return when she realizes that love for her—in a world where the woman she loves is straight and the progressive liberal city she lives in hates fags—is something that will always be unrequited; and it is finding a kind of humming euphoria in all this bleakness that makes this book a classic. It’s the beautiful language, the romantic demon on your shoulder, the lamps burning in the brown and yellow light of the end of day, and all of the attendant possibilities and daydreams. Ideology is meaningless to James, and I can understand that might offend some people, but the alternative environment is so much more lush, so much more beautiful for all of its hints of sadness, that when thrust side by side I wonder as to why anyone would ever vote again.
December 8, 2013
I listened to this on audible while driving to & from work -- it took awhile, but the book allows itself to be 'read' in chunks. The story is certainly a bit too long (typically Jamesian, I guess), often melodramatic -- but, in the end, quite good. Magnficent characters -- Verena, Olive, Basil...
The audible was narrated by a woman named Xe Sands - pronounced 'ex-y Sands'. she specializes in reading audible erotic romances -- so I guess 'Xe' is not chinese; probably her real name is Mildred or something... That said, the reading was brilliant -- a pity she doesn't do more serious 'reading'.
There is a great joke in the Wiki entry --
"Another theme in the book, much discussed recently, is Olive's possible lesbian attraction to Verena. (The term Boston marriage, apparently first used here by James, came to connote just such an ambiguous co-habiting long-term relationship between two women.) James is not explicit here, partially due to the conventions of the time. But this vagueness may actually enrich the novel because it creates possible ambiguity about Olive's motives."
"possible"...??? Ha! Ha! Not much "ambiguity about Olive's motives" that I could see...
The audible was narrated by a woman named Xe Sands - pronounced 'ex-y Sands'. she specializes in reading audible erotic romances -- so I guess 'Xe' is not chinese; probably her real name is Mildred or something... That said, the reading was brilliant -- a pity she doesn't do more serious 'reading'.
There is a great joke in the Wiki entry --
"Another theme in the book, much discussed recently, is Olive's possible lesbian attraction to Verena. (The term Boston marriage, apparently first used here by James, came to connote just such an ambiguous co-habiting long-term relationship between two women.) James is not explicit here, partially due to the conventions of the time. But this vagueness may actually enrich the novel because it creates possible ambiguity about Olive's motives."
"possible"...??? Ha! Ha! Not much "ambiguity about Olive's motives" that I could see...
December 9, 2024
This is a tough James to love - none of the main characters are likeable, and while one (Verena) is only a cipher, the other two, Olive Chancellor and Basil Ransom, are pretty actively dislikeable. James is never terse, so this is quite a lot of time to spend in a static love triangle where sour Olive and smarmy conceited Basil battle for the beautiful but susceptible Verena. Some of the minor characters are far more engaging (I'm looking at you, Dr. Prance), and if Henry has a favorite in this book I'd guess it's this independent minded but non-doctrinaire woman.
The rest is satirizing on Bostonian do-gooders and idealists, especially feminists, and the retrograde secessionist who swans about being smugly superior and priding himself on the fact that, although he is to all outwards appearances a failure, he's still got one up on Olive because he has a d*** (you can practically hear Ransome thinking aloud that "a lesbian is just a woman who hasn't met the right man yet"). James' satire is a little too misanthropic (and misogynist) here to be much fun.
There's a certain macabre joke here in that the tiresome political types of the late 19th century seem snatched from today's (tiresome) headlines. Olive's insistence on ideological purity (and no fun) finds its match in the current moment's more doctrinaire woke liberals and as for Basil, well, I don't think he'd be so uncouth as to wear a MAGA hat or tweet "your body, my choice" (after all, Southern chivalry), he's certainly thought those things while watching Joe Rogan and "doing his own research."
The rest is satirizing on Bostonian do-gooders and idealists, especially feminists, and the retrograde secessionist who swans about being smugly superior and priding himself on the fact that, although he is to all outwards appearances a failure, he's still got one up on Olive because he has a d*** (you can practically hear Ransome thinking aloud that "a lesbian is just a woman who hasn't met the right man yet"). James' satire is a little too misanthropic (and misogynist) here to be much fun.
There's a certain macabre joke here in that the tiresome political types of the late 19th century seem snatched from today's (tiresome) headlines. Olive's insistence on ideological purity (and no fun) finds its match in the current moment's more doctrinaire woke liberals and as for Basil, well, I don't think he'd be so uncouth as to wear a MAGA hat or tweet "your body, my choice" (after all, Southern chivalry), he's certainly thought those things while watching Joe Rogan and "doing his own research."
June 12, 2017
Бостънци е може би най-голямата, най-епичната и най-заплетена творба на Henry James. Една история на няколко души, повечко еманципация, интриги, борба за любов - повече от самата любов, осмиване на силата, която женската природа може да покаже в един мъжки свят.
Харесва ми как Джеймс оставя читателя да прецени дали любовта е по-силна от всичко или просто женската сила е съвсем немощна. Обичам, когато авторите ни оставят сами да преценим написаното, според възможностите си и според собственото верую. В литературата да не си назидателен и натрапчив, но много интересен, е голям талант.
Много са темите, върху които може да се дискутира, обаче това, което той владее най-добре е този ужасно красив, хитроумен, саркастичен на моменти стил, който то кара да четеш и препрочиташ някои страници и пасажи по няколко пъти. Героите му са много сложни образи и характери, много запомнящи се. Базил Рансъм - коя ли жена няма да го хареса, нищо, че е небогат южняк. И колко хубаво и много тънко се присмива Хенри Джеймс на надценените качества и видимите слабости на хората. Обожавам как някъде казва: "това дори и аз много не мога да ви обясня, трябва да го видите" обаче само какво обяснение е това! Пиша хаотично и емоционално, пленена съм.
Преводът на Надежда Розова е изящен. Бостънци може и да не е най-любимата ми творба на Хенри Джеймс, (въпреки че много я харесвам, аз просто обожавам Уошингтън Скуеър ) прави най-доброто за своя автор - кара ме да искам да чета и още и още.
Харесва ми как Джеймс оставя читателя да прецени дали любовта е по-силна от всичко или просто женската сила е съвсем немощна. Обичам, когато авторите ни оставят сами да преценим написаното, според възможностите си и според собственото верую. В литературата да не си назидателен и натрапчив, но много интересен, е голям талант.
Много са темите, върху които може да се дискутира, обаче това, което той владее най-добре е този ужасно красив, хитроумен, саркастичен на моменти стил, който то кара да четеш и препрочиташ някои страници и пасажи по няколко пъти. Героите му са много сложни образи и характери, много запомнящи се. Базил Рансъм - коя ли жена няма да го хареса, нищо, че е небогат южняк. И колко хубаво и много тънко се присмива Хенри Джеймс на надценените качества и видимите слабости на хората. Обожавам как някъде казва: "това дори и аз много не мога да ви обясня, трябва да го видите" обаче само какво обяснение е това! Пиша хаотично и емоционално, пленена съм.
Преводът на Надежда Розова е изящен. Бостънци може и да не е най-любимата ми творба на Хенри Джеймс, (въпреки че много я харесвам, аз просто обожавам Уошингтън Скуеър ) прави най-доброто за своя автор - кара ме да искам да чета и още и още.
April 3, 2022
While certainly not his very best, The Bostonians is far from the least successful of the novels Henry James published. With its cast of (mostly) overwrought characters, and its powerful evocation of environment (post-Reconstruction Boston, late-Victorian Manhattan, and pre-pre-Kennedy Cape Cod), there is plenty to engage the patient reader. This is James, after all, so Patience remains a requirement if one is to wade through the ocean of discursive, tangential prose that is his trademark. I mostly enjoyed the swim.
The most interesting aspect of this story is the interface between the fictional world created by James and the non-fictional society that inspired it. Learning that Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Annie Adams Fields, Sarah Orne Jewett, and other historical figures - and their sociopolitical causes - had informed his narrative choices sent me down many rabbit holes, mostly to my benefit. I suspect I would have liked this book less had it not been built upon such intriguing premises. As it was, despite liking very few of the characters and finding certain scenes cringeworthy, this was a worthwhile endeavor.
Finally, I was brought up short when I realized that the concept of a Boston Marriage is now obsolete. Marriage is marriage in most of the civilized world, and Olive would have been just as miserable married to Verena as Verena will soon find herself to be married to Basil.
The most interesting aspect of this story is the interface between the fictional world created by James and the non-fictional society that inspired it. Learning that Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Annie Adams Fields, Sarah Orne Jewett, and other historical figures - and their sociopolitical causes - had informed his narrative choices sent me down many rabbit holes, mostly to my benefit. I suspect I would have liked this book less had it not been built upon such intriguing premises. As it was, despite liking very few of the characters and finding certain scenes cringeworthy, this was a worthwhile endeavor.
Finally, I was brought up short when I realized that the concept of a Boston Marriage is now obsolete. Marriage is marriage in most of the civilized world, and Olive would have been just as miserable married to Verena as Verena will soon find herself to be married to Basil.
February 21, 2012
A shallow portrayal of pathetic people caught up in the selfish advancement of their own interests. Two self-absorbed individuals vie for the affections of and control over an enchanting prophetess. As with many of Henry James works, this one also focuses on the movement afoot in the late 1800s regarding the emancipation of women. The substance of the movement is not discussed, only the forces vying for control. I found no great cause, no great plot, no great character development, no great style. It was a very disappointing read for me. I cannot recommend the book.
April 24, 2022
Мне казалось, что феминистское и суфражистское движение в защиту прав женщин зарождалось в рабочей среде, среднем классе или в интеллигенции, близкой к низшим сословиям, из которых вышли Роза Люксембург и Клара Цеткин. Поэтому, эта книга открыла для меня то, что в высших классах женский вопрос, причем связанный не столько с оплатой труда, но и, в целом, прав, также будоражил умы, причем задолго до того, как женское движение приобрело такой размах.
Роман хорош. Характеры постепенно раскрываются, показывая нам сложность их натур, где под лицемерием скрывается ум и преданность делу, под галантностью и внешней привлекательностью эгоист и жестокий человек, под красотой и одаренностью колеблющаяся юная дама, склонная к истерикам и предательству. Надо отметить, что роман изначально задумывался, как насмешка над феминистическими устремлениями, и вообще всей политической жизни тогдашнего Бостона. Тем ценнее эта книга, поскольку показывает проблемы восприятия новых идей о женском равноправии через призму неприятия, а значит, это рассказ без преувеличений.
Роль женщины высшего общества сводилась к тому, чтобы быть зависимой от мужчины, жить за счет доходов, добываемых им, угождать мужу и очаровывать. Я допускаю, что достаточно современных женщин стремятся именно к этому, низводя на нет все достижения феминизма. Верина обращается к собравшимся послушать ее джентльменам, что они никогда не были в клетке, и понятия не имеют, какие чувства испытывает женщина, находящаяся в ней.
По мнению Джеймса, в романе побеждает любовь и возвращает женщину в лоно семьи. Но я задаюсь вопросом, что, кроме харизматичной внешности может предложить ей южанин, потерявший свое состояние? Нет, если продумать, что же было потом, Верина под экономическими условиями должна вернуться к борьбе за права женщин, возможно, начать работать – в те времена, женщине из общества было практически невозможно найти работу и она всецело зависела от мужчины, а может, позже она бы бросила Рэнсона. Поэтому, принятие решения выйти замуж по любви за бедного в те времена тоже было смелым и феминистичным решением.
Роман хорош. Характеры постепенно раскрываются, показывая нам сложность их натур, где под лицемерием скрывается ум и преданность делу, под галантностью и внешней привлекательностью эгоист и жестокий человек, под красотой и одаренностью колеблющаяся юная дама, склонная к истерикам и предательству. Надо отметить, что роман изначально задумывался, как насмешка над феминистическими устремлениями, и вообще всей политической жизни тогдашнего Бостона. Тем ценнее эта книга, поскольку показывает проблемы восприятия новых идей о женском равноправии через призму неприятия, а значит, это рассказ без преувеличений.
Роль женщины высшего общества сводилась к тому, чтобы быть зависимой от мужчины, жить за счет доходов, добываемых им, угождать мужу и очаровывать. Я допускаю, что достаточно современных женщин стремятся именно к этому, низводя на нет все достижения феминизма. Верина обращается к собравшимся послушать ее джентльменам, что они никогда не были в клетке, и понятия не имеют, какие чувства испытывает женщина, находящаяся в ней.
По мнению Джеймса, в романе побеждает любовь и возвращает женщину в лоно семьи. Но я задаюсь вопросом, что, кроме харизматичной внешности может предложить ей южанин, потерявший свое состояние? Нет, если продумать, что же было потом, Верина под экономическими условиями должна вернуться к борьбе за права женщин, возможно, начать работать – в те времена, женщине из общества было практически невозможно найти работу и она всецело зависела от мужчины, а может, позже она бы бросила Рэнсона. Поэтому, принятие решения выйти замуж по любви за бедного в те времена тоже было смелым и феминистичным решением.
February 10, 2023
Много ми хареса този роман. Много се забавлявах и дори смях, докато четях. На моменти ми беше досадно от пространните обяснения, подробности, детайли и отплесвания, но цялостно съм много доволна.
За пръв път подчертавам в книга и съм извадила някои любими цитати.
“Харесваха му такива жени - да не мислят много-много, да не се чувстват отговорни за световните съдбини. Просто да са въздържани и пасивни, да се интересуват от домакинството и да оставят обществения живот на по-силния пол.”
“В природата и беше да се нагърбва със задължения, да товари съвестта си с трудни дела.”
“Онова, което Базил Рансъм долови всъщност, беше, че госпожица Чансълър е съвършената стара мома. Това беше присъщото и качество, нейната съдба, категорично предопределена. Има жени, които остават неомъжени по случайност, и други, които не се женят по свой избор, Олив Чансълър обаче беше неомъжена, защото така налагаше собствената и природа. Беше стара мома, както Шели е лиричен поет и както август е зноен месец.”
“В нрава на жената беше да се тревожи без причина, да страда от безброй скрупули и да предсказва последиците от всяко нещо.”
“Положението на жените е да правят мъжете на глупаци.”
“Беше на мнение, че най-ефикасният протест срещу робството на жените беше всяка представителка на пола да стане видна личност. Ако някой дочуеше дори част от разговора на тази вдъхновена двойка, щеше да бъде трогнат от силния им стремеж към светска слава”
“Не харесваше спорещите и активните жени и смяташе, че женската мекота и покорство са вдъхновение и възможност мъжът да прояви най-доброто от себе си.”
За пръв път подчертавам в книга и съм извадила някои любими цитати.
“Харесваха му такива жени - да не мислят много-много, да не се чувстват отговорни за световните съдбини. Просто да са въздържани и пасивни, да се интересуват от домакинството и да оставят обществения живот на по-силния пол.”
“В природата и беше да се нагърбва със задължения, да товари съвестта си с трудни дела.”
“Онова, което Базил Рансъм долови всъщност, беше, че госпожица Чансълър е съвършената стара мома. Това беше присъщото и качество, нейната съдба, категорично предопределена. Има жени, които остават неомъжени по случайност, и други, които не се женят по свой избор, Олив Чансълър обаче беше неомъжена, защото така налагаше собствената и природа. Беше стара мома, както Шели е лиричен поет и както август е зноен месец.”
“В нрава на жената беше да се тревожи без причина, да страда от безброй скрупули и да предсказва последиците от всяко нещо.”
“Положението на жените е да правят мъжете на глупаци.”
“Беше на мнение, че най-ефикасният протест срещу робството на жените беше всяка представителка на пола да стане видна личност. Ако някой дочуеше дори част от разговора на тази вдъхновена двойка, щеше да бъде трогнат от силния им стремеж към светска слава”
“Не харесваше спорещите и активните жени и смяташе, че женската мекота и покорство са вдъхновение и възможност мъжът да прояви най-доброто от себе си.”
January 4, 2019
Ugh, this was really unpleasant, and actually upsets me—I really like some of Henry James’s other books (especially Wings of a Dove, though I also loved Portrait of a Lady), but this one left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Someone wrote, of the characters in this book, that “He [Henry James] does not love them. Why should he ask more of us?” And it’s the best summary of the book I can cite.
Basil is awful. Just AWFUL. Verena is . . . fine, I guess, but ends up being rather pathetic. Olive isn’t really much of anything, but it’s clear that James hates her the most of the three. To be fair, he makes subtle, sly digs at all three of his main characters throughout the novel (and not in a funny or interesting way), but Olive definitely suffers the worst of it.
The plot also sucks. It kind of reminds me of an Austen novel (fair warning, I hate Austen). Girl is spitfire, self-assured, interesting, independent, likes to challenge men as equals; she is very different from what people expect her to be (submissive, simple, dependent). Girl falls in love, ends up marrying man and submitting herself to him as she was expected—you see, she just needed to meet the right man to whom she can submit herself. Depression ever after.
James just sounds like a whiny Trump-et who hates anything that smacks of progress. For the most part, I think James identified with Basil, who gets treated the best.
And that’s really rotten because Basil is the worst. This is an example of his thought process (which, while funny, is also really annoying): “Twenty other persons had arrived, and had placed themselves in the chairs along the wall. Basil Ransom wondered who they all were. He had a general idea they were mediums, Communists, vegetarians.”
He hates women, especially women who think they have the right to speak. He hates independence in women and really only values physical beauty. He's really, really repetitive about these things.
Someone wrote, of the characters in this book, that “He [Henry James] does not love them. Why should he ask more of us?” And it’s the best summary of the book I can cite.
Basil is awful. Just AWFUL. Verena is . . . fine, I guess, but ends up being rather pathetic. Olive isn’t really much of anything, but it’s clear that James hates her the most of the three. To be fair, he makes subtle, sly digs at all three of his main characters throughout the novel (and not in a funny or interesting way), but Olive definitely suffers the worst of it.
The plot also sucks. It kind of reminds me of an Austen novel (fair warning, I hate Austen). Girl is spitfire, self-assured, interesting, independent, likes to challenge men as equals; she is very different from what people expect her to be (submissive, simple, dependent). Girl falls in love, ends up marrying man and submitting herself to him as she was expected—you see, she just needed to meet the right man to whom she can submit herself. Depression ever after.
James just sounds like a whiny Trump-et who hates anything that smacks of progress. For the most part, I think James identified with Basil, who gets treated the best.
And that’s really rotten because Basil is the worst. This is an example of his thought process (which, while funny, is also really annoying): “Twenty other persons had arrived, and had placed themselves in the chairs along the wall. Basil Ransom wondered who they all were. He had a general idea they were mediums, Communists, vegetarians.”
He hates women, especially women who think they have the right to speak. He hates independence in women and really only values physical beauty. He's really, really repetitive about these things.
June 15, 2011
Another step in the slow accretion of my lifelong project of reading the major novels and stories. The Bostonians -- maddening, thrilling, vexing, and troublesome -- illustrates again the principle that at its very highest levels fiction operates upon the reader in a messy and unpredictable way. As I write this, I am about to go to the "Great Books" discussion group at the Yale Club, which typically comprises late middle-aged women and me -- my peeps, in other words -- and which is always enlightening and amusing. It is difficult to predict how this novel's jarring and in some ways deeply unsatisfying denouement, its stern fictional renunciation of basic gender equality, and its portrayal of three fundamentally flawed and not very likable characters will sit with a sampling of contemporary readers. These elements, to my mind, are symptomatic of what I consider to be James's basic toughness -- not a word usually associated with him, obviously -- which manifests in his refusal to oblige the reader with neat and satisfying endings, or to soften the remorselessness of his satire. These are the operations of genius.
March 18, 2023
Λαμπρό δείγμα γραφής του Χένρι Τζέιμς, καταπιάνεται με το... προανάκρουσμα του φεμινισμού (πριν ακόμα αρχίσει αυτός να μετριέται σε κύματα) με αρκετά ρεαλιστικό (ιδίως αν κριθεί με βάση την εποχή του) τρόπο. Ο εμφύλιος πόλεμος των ΗΠΑ έχει τελειώσει και νέες προκλήσεις αναδύονται στη νεόκοπη αμερικανική κοινωνία.
Μακιαβελικά έξυπνος ο τρόπος παρουσίασης της αμφιταλάντευσης μεταξύ ιδεών σαν διελκυστίνδα μεταξύ της φεμινίστριας φίλης της ηρωίδας και του ερωτευμένου (λίγο φαλλοκράτη νότιου, αλλά πάντα τζέντλεμαν) που τη διεκδικεί.
Μπορεί να αργεί λίγο να πάρει μπρος, άλλωστε δεν είναι και μικρό έργο, οπότε μια μακρά (σε σελίδες) περίοδος ωρίμανσης είναι αναμενόμενη, ενώ δεν έχει τα ενοχλητικά κρεσέντα ή τις πλαδαρές κοιλάδες άλλων έργων της εποχής. Σταθερή γραφή σε "ταχύτητα" και ποιότητα, ρηξικέλευθες ιδέες που παρουσιάζονται χωρίς ειρωνεία ή αρνητικά διακείμενο κριτικό πνεύμα, μας θυμίζουν γιατί ο συγγραφέας έγινε κλασικός.
Μακιαβελικά έξυπνος ο τρόπος παρουσίασης της αμφιταλάντευσης μεταξύ ιδεών σαν διελκυστίνδα μεταξύ της φεμινίστριας φίλης της ηρωίδας και του ερωτευμένου (λίγο φαλλοκράτη νότιου, αλλά πάντα τζέντλεμαν) που τη διεκδικεί.
Μπορεί να αργεί λίγο να πάρει μπρος, άλλωστε δεν είναι και μικρό έργο, οπότε μια μακρά (σε σελίδες) περίοδος ωρίμανσης είναι αναμενόμενη, ενώ δεν έχει τα ενοχλητικά κρεσέντα ή τις πλαδαρές κοιλάδες άλλων έργων της εποχής. Σταθερή γραφή σε "ταχύτητα" και ποιότητα, ρηξικέλευθες ιδέες που παρουσιάζονται χωρίς ειρωνεία ή αρνητικά διακείμενο κριτικό πνεύμα, μας θυμίζουν γιατί ο συγγραφέας έγινε κλασικός.
October 4, 2011
A pesar de mi poca experiencia con Henry James, me atrevo a decir que no es un autor precisamente fácil: sus descripciones son exhaustivas hasta el paroxismo, el ritmo de la narración es concientemente lento, es pulcro y detallista hasta la exasperación… A veces se pasa de la raya, como en ‘La copa dorada’ (libro que confieso que no tuve fuerzas para terminar), pero a veces se queda justo al límite como por un milagro de equilibrista consumado, como es el caso de ‘Retrato de una dama’ y también ‘Las bostonianas’. Ésta última es una novela que te pide cierto esfuerzo y cierta paciencia, pero al final, una vez has superado los primeros escollos y te has acostumbrado a su forma, la recompensa es muy grande.
Si me preguntan de qué va ‘Las bostonianas’ diría que va de una lesbiana feminista de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX que se enamora de una chica y que en la primera cita ya le pide que se vayan a vivir juntas. Esta descripción del argumento reconozco que es la más llamativa, la que pretende pillar a los lectores por el supuesto morbo, pero no deja de ser cierta. Más exactamente se podría decir que va de una prima y un primo, que se conocen y no se soportan, y luego se enamoran de la misma mujer. La prima es una solterona que ha consagrado su vida a la lucha para la emancipación y la igualdad de la mujer; es una persona seria, apasionada, sufridora y determinada. El primo es un hombre del sur que pasa por dificultades económicas; es el típico caballero del sur, galante con las mujeres pero con un ideario conservador.
¿Y cómo es el objeto de deseo de estos dos primos? Para unos es una furcia que sólo busca atención y elogios, para otros es un ser puro consagrado a la causa feminista. Probablemente ninguno de los dos tenga razón, probablemente sea un poco de las dos cosas; es una oradora comprometida con un talento extraordinario pero también una persona social y alegre. Tiene su punto frívolo y superficial, pero también su punto de luchadora por la igualdad. Y creo que en parte su tragedia es ésta, que está entre dos mundos opuestos y que nadie puede entenderla tal como es. Los dos primos se enamoran de ella pero para cambiarla; parecen ser incapaces de aceptarla tal como es. Aunque también se podría argumentar que la tragedia de esta chica es que es débil de carácter, excesivamente dócil, que se deja llevar demasiado fácilmente por los que la presionan.
No pasa mucho en la novela. Henry James se puede tirar casi 100 páginas para describir una velada, es decir, para narrar no más de unas tres horas. Aunque más que narrar lo que hace James es describir. No narra una historia sino más bien describe la psicología de unos personajes. Describe la oposición de caracteres entre Boston, Nueva York y el Sur. También describe la manipulación, egoísmo, celos y sentimiento de culpa que puede haber en cualquier relación amorosa. En lo que se refiere a la trama, uno pronto adivina qué va a pasar y cómo va a terminar todo, pero esto poco importa, lo que importa es cómo va a pasar lo que sabemos que va a pasar. James es un maestro a la hora de describir la psicología de sus personajes y, encima, es capaz de ser despiadado con ellos al presentarlos como unos seres vanidosos y egoístas, pero tan humanos y reconocibles, y además lo hace todo con una pizca de sutil sentido del humor. De verdad que hacía tiempo que un libro no me maravillaba tanto.
Si me preguntan de qué va ‘Las bostonianas’ diría que va de una lesbiana feminista de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX que se enamora de una chica y que en la primera cita ya le pide que se vayan a vivir juntas. Esta descripción del argumento reconozco que es la más llamativa, la que pretende pillar a los lectores por el supuesto morbo, pero no deja de ser cierta. Más exactamente se podría decir que va de una prima y un primo, que se conocen y no se soportan, y luego se enamoran de la misma mujer. La prima es una solterona que ha consagrado su vida a la lucha para la emancipación y la igualdad de la mujer; es una persona seria, apasionada, sufridora y determinada. El primo es un hombre del sur que pasa por dificultades económicas; es el típico caballero del sur, galante con las mujeres pero con un ideario conservador.
¿Y cómo es el objeto de deseo de estos dos primos? Para unos es una furcia que sólo busca atención y elogios, para otros es un ser puro consagrado a la causa feminista. Probablemente ninguno de los dos tenga razón, probablemente sea un poco de las dos cosas; es una oradora comprometida con un talento extraordinario pero también una persona social y alegre. Tiene su punto frívolo y superficial, pero también su punto de luchadora por la igualdad. Y creo que en parte su tragedia es ésta, que está entre dos mundos opuestos y que nadie puede entenderla tal como es. Los dos primos se enamoran de ella pero para cambiarla; parecen ser incapaces de aceptarla tal como es. Aunque también se podría argumentar que la tragedia de esta chica es que es débil de carácter, excesivamente dócil, que se deja llevar demasiado fácilmente por los que la presionan.
No pasa mucho en la novela. Henry James se puede tirar casi 100 páginas para describir una velada, es decir, para narrar no más de unas tres horas. Aunque más que narrar lo que hace James es describir. No narra una historia sino más bien describe la psicología de unos personajes. Describe la oposición de caracteres entre Boston, Nueva York y el Sur. También describe la manipulación, egoísmo, celos y sentimiento de culpa que puede haber en cualquier relación amorosa. En lo que se refiere a la trama, uno pronto adivina qué va a pasar y cómo va a terminar todo, pero esto poco importa, lo que importa es cómo va a pasar lo que sabemos que va a pasar. James es un maestro a la hora de describir la psicología de sus personajes y, encima, es capaz de ser despiadado con ellos al presentarlos como unos seres vanidosos y egoístas, pero tan humanos y reconocibles, y además lo hace todo con una pizca de sutil sentido del humor. De verdad que hacía tiempo que un libro no me maravillaba tanto.
February 24, 2023
Από τη μια πρόκειται για ένα βαρύ πολυσέλιδο έργο, από την άλλη, μέχρι και η εξάντληση πρέπει να είναι μέρος του ιστού του Χένρι Τζέιμς.
Όλα ξεκινούν στο τέλος του εμφυλίου στην Αμερική, με τρεις μορφες, τον ευγενικό αγενή σεξιστή ετοιμόλογο Basil Ransom, τη μαχητική κτητική ομοφυλόφιλη φεμινίστρια Olive και την κορυφή του ερωτικού τριγώνου, το κέντρο των ομόκεντρων κύκλων, την αφελή Verena. Αυτή η συνταγή από μόνη της έχει ενδιαφέρον, ωστόσο το πιο εκπληκτικό είναι το ταλέντο του Τζέιμς να δημιουργεί μια ολόκληρη κοινωνία πολύπλοκων ανθρώπινων σχέσεων, συχνά με μόνο μια παράγραφο φήμης, αλλά είναι σαφές πως δεν δημιουργήθηκαν για να καλύψουν κάποιο κενό· πράγματι πείθουν πως είναι ολοζώντανοι και παράλληλα με την πλοκή του έργου, ζουν κι εκείνοι τις ζωές τους με τις δικές τους ίντριγκες και υποθέσεις. Θα είχε πραγματικό ενδιαφέρον ένας κατάλογος όλων αυτών.
Σχετικά με τους Basil, Olive και Verena, φαίνεται πως τα πράγματα ξετυλίγονται αργά αλλά ο συγγραφέας αποζημιώνει με εξα��ρετικό χιούμορ (θυμίζει Ουάιλντ σε κάποια σημεία) και πολιτικά σχόλια, όπου οι πρωταγωνιστές συμβολίζουν τη σύγκρουση των διαφορετικών ομάδων-συμφερόντων της εποχής, στοχεύοντας στο να επιβληθούν με κάθε νόμιμη διάσταση, και έτσι να επικρατήσουν.
Το πιο κουραστικό είναι πράγματι η ταχύτητα της εξέλιξης, μετά τη σελίδα 200 ένιωσα ψυχική επένδυση αλλά και κάποια απογοητευτικά κλισέ χαρακτηριστικά των ηρώων. Ο Τζέιμς ζωγραφίζει την Olive με τα χειρότερα χρώματα, ως μια λεσβία που βρίσκεται σε φριχτούς όρους με τη σεξουαλικότητά της (δεκτό αλλά γιατί να μην αναλυθεί παραπάνω το γιατί;) και φυσικά η Verena φέρεται ως πάπετ, που ο φεμινισμός χρησιμοποιεί χαράζοντας πορεία, αναγκάζοντας άντρες σαν τον Basil να αναθεωρήσουν για τη γυναικεία σιωπή και τους σφιχτούς κορσέδες, ως μονόδρομο για να απολαύσουν την Verena και την κάθε Verena.
Το αγαπημένο μου σημείο, είναι η καταλάθος διάνα, όπου η επιθετική/χειριστική/ζηλιάρα Olive ζητάει από το μικρό της προτεζέ, την Verena, όχι ακριβώς να μην παντρευτεί ποτέ και να αφιερωθεί στις ομιλίες της γυναικείας χειραφέτησης, αλλά να το κάνει μόνο εάν είναι ευτυχισμένη με τον μελλοντικό σύζυγο.
Όλα ξεκινούν στο τέλος του εμφυλίου στην Αμερική, με τρεις μορφες, τον ευγενικό αγενή σεξιστή ετοιμόλογο Basil Ransom, τη μαχητική κτητική ομοφυλόφιλη φεμινίστρια Olive και την κορυφή του ερωτικού τριγώνου, το κέντρο των ομόκεντρων κύκλων, την αφελή Verena. Αυτή η συνταγή από μόνη της έχει ενδιαφέρον, ωστόσο το πιο εκπληκτικό είναι το ταλέντο του Τζέιμς να δημιουργεί μια ολόκληρη κοινωνία πολύπλοκων ανθρώπινων σχέσεων, συχνά με μόνο μια παράγραφο φήμης, αλλά είναι σαφές πως δεν δημιουργήθηκαν για να καλύψουν κάποιο κενό· πράγματι πείθουν πως είναι ολοζώντανοι και παράλληλα με την πλοκή του έργου, ζουν κι εκείνοι τις ζωές τους με τις δικές τους ίντριγκες και υποθέσεις. Θα είχε πραγματικό ενδιαφέρον ένας κατάλογος όλων αυτών.
Σχετικά με τους Basil, Olive και Verena, φαίνεται πως τα πράγματα ξετυλίγονται αργά αλλά ο συγγραφέας αποζημιώνει με εξα��ρετικό χιούμορ (θυμίζει Ουάιλντ σε κάποια σημεία) και πολιτικά σχόλια, όπου οι πρωταγωνιστές συμβολίζουν τη σύγκρουση των διαφορετικών ομάδων-συμφερόντων της εποχής, στοχεύοντας στο να επιβληθούν με κάθε νόμιμη διάσταση, και έτσι να επικρατήσουν.
Το πιο κουραστικό είναι πράγματι η ταχύτητα της εξέλιξης, μετά τη σελίδα 200 ένιωσα ψυχική επένδυση αλλά και κάποια απογοητευτικά κλισέ χαρακτηριστικά των ηρώων. Ο Τζέιμς ζωγραφίζει την Olive με τα χειρότερα χρώματα, ως μια λεσβία που βρίσκεται σε φριχτούς όρους με τη σεξουαλικότητά της (δεκτό αλλά γιατί να μην αναλυθεί παραπάνω το γιατί;) και φυσικά η Verena φέρεται ως πάπετ, που ο φεμινισμός χρησιμοποιεί χαράζοντας πορεία, αναγκάζοντας άντρες σαν τον Basil να αναθεωρήσουν για τη γυναικεία σιωπή και τους σφιχτούς κορσέδες, ως μονόδρομο για να απολαύσουν την Verena και την κάθε Verena.
Το αγαπημένο μου σημείο, είναι η καταλάθος διάνα, όπου η επιθετική/χειριστική/ζηλιάρα Olive ζητάει από το μικρό της προτεζέ, την Verena, όχι ακριβώς να μην παντρευτεί ποτέ και να αφιερωθεί στις ομιλίες της γυναικείας χειραφέτησης, αλλά να το κάνει μόνο εάν είναι ευτυχισμένη με τον μελλοντικό σύζυγο.
March 13, 2013
A claustrophobic and tedious book that has little to offer the casual reader, this is a still-life of a novel with almost no plot, drama, or humor. Olive, Verena and Basil are drawn with microscopic attention to detail, but they are boring narcissistic characters with few illuminating qualities.
Miss Birdseye is the only vibrant character in the whole novel. The exchanges between her and Mr. Ransom are interesting and entertaining. There are exactly 4 such scenes.
Before starting the novel, I was looking forward to James' depictions of Boston in the late 19th century, but even this modest expectation was disappointed: James does not bother to draw any pictures here. This bloated novel is nothing but a protracted analysis of characters that stopped being interesting, controversial, scandalous, and contemporary about 100 years ago.
Miss Birdseye is the only vibrant character in the whole novel. The exchanges between her and Mr. Ransom are interesting and entertaining. There are exactly 4 such scenes.
Before starting the novel, I was looking forward to James' depictions of Boston in the late 19th century, but even this modest expectation was disappointed: James does not bother to draw any pictures here. This bloated novel is nothing but a protracted analysis of characters that stopped being interesting, controversial, scandalous, and contemporary about 100 years ago.
January 24, 2024
Ήταν μία πιο ευχάριστη αναγνωστική εμπειρία, από ότι έδειχνε στις πρώτες σελίδες...
May 6, 2017
This is one of those books i’ll continue to ruminate on and most likely decide my thinking was awry, maybe often. I have a difficult time believing Verena - i guess what i mean is suspending my disbelief for her. How anyone could live a couple of decades and apparently not develop any predilections, any thoughts of her own, even about herself? She is presented as a pure vessel (empty?) gifted with a divine afflatus of enthusiasm, and the capacity to engage any audience.
“The worst of the case was that Verena was sure not to perceive this outrage - not to dislike them in consequence. There were so many things that she hadn’t yet learned to dislike, in spite of her friend’s earnest efforts to teach her.”
This is classic James wit, but also speaks to Verena’s lack of an opinion; sadly, the humor wouldn't work if we thought she had one. She has a certain unformed and vanishing quality which for me was much more difficult than any of the crusty, selfish, atavistic behaviors of Ransom, the goofy nihilism of Adeline or the austere, obdurate Olive. Verena’s desperation to please whomever she’s facing, to take the shape of the container she’s offered - the soft, attractive, fluffy girl/woman contrasted with the rigidity of the hyperintellect Olive - may be the point. I hope not. I would like to think James made Verena so malleable, albeit unrealistically so, as she had been reared to do this - be a source of funding for her much less talented sleazeball mesmerizing parents - to be able to speechify about anything. I prefer to think this rather than think James was really against suffrage.
“... said Ransom, smiling as men smile when they are perfectly unsatisfactory.”
“The worst of the case was that Verena was sure not to perceive this outrage - not to dislike them in consequence. There were so many things that she hadn’t yet learned to dislike, in spite of her friend’s earnest efforts to teach her.”
This is classic James wit, but also speaks to Verena’s lack of an opinion; sadly, the humor wouldn't work if we thought she had one. She has a certain unformed and vanishing quality which for me was much more difficult than any of the crusty, selfish, atavistic behaviors of Ransom, the goofy nihilism of Adeline or the austere, obdurate Olive. Verena’s desperation to please whomever she’s facing, to take the shape of the container she’s offered - the soft, attractive, fluffy girl/woman contrasted with the rigidity of the hyperintellect Olive - may be the point. I hope not. I would like to think James made Verena so malleable, albeit unrealistically so, as she had been reared to do this - be a source of funding for her much less talented sleazeball mesmerizing parents - to be able to speechify about anything. I prefer to think this rather than think James was really against suffrage.
“... said Ransom, smiling as men smile when they are perfectly unsatisfactory.”
December 16, 2015
3,5/5
Esta es OTRA de esas novelas en las que he terminado odiando a casi todos los personajes. ¬¬
Aprecio la ironía de James, el estudio que hace de la psicología de sus personajes y desde luego el contexto de las sufragistas pero 'Las bostonianas' no ha conseguido llenarme del todo.
Aún así, por alguna razón su historia logra absorberte de tal manera que tampoco podía parar de leer...
Lo que no quita que sea enormemente DENSA, y por ello no la recomiendo si buscais una lectura fácil y gratificante, precisamente.
Esta es OTRA de esas novelas en las que he terminado odiando a casi todos los personajes. ¬¬
Aprecio la ironía de James, el estudio que hace de la psicología de sus personajes y desde luego el contexto de las sufragistas pero 'Las bostonianas' no ha conseguido llenarme del todo.
Aún así, por alguna razón su historia logra absorberte de tal manera que tampoco podía parar de leer...
Lo que no quita que sea enormemente DENSA, y por ello no la recomiendo si buscais una lectura fácil y gratificante, precisamente.
June 16, 2012
My impression in very few words: Charming Southern asshole falls in love with pretend-feminist who is docile yet innocent (possibly with big tits). He then steals her away from her lesbian spinster best friend in the middle of them fighting for women's suffrage.
Quite entertaining. Consciously sexist though.
Quite entertaining. Consciously sexist though.
May 14, 2021
Henry James should not attempt melodrama. He is a master of the sly revelation peeking sidelong out of a tangled sentence and should stick to that.
The Bostonians offers a panorama of the American caste system, with characters ranging from New York Brahmins to newspapermen (the lowest of the low) and faith-healing hucksters. Nice try, but James is standing in his own light when he attempts to infuse this story with any kind of energy.
Miss Verena Tarrant is the pretty and verbally gifted daughter of a faith-healing huckster, a man who is not so successful as to save his family from living a hand-to-mouth existence. Verena gets introduced to the politically active subculture of Boston when she makes an impromptu speech about the rights of women, and she is immediately taken up by one of the most earnest of the cause’s adherents, the well-to-do Olive Chancellor. Olive is a devotee but crippled in her own activism by acute shyness and lack of charm (James is alive to the irony of a feminist requiring charm to promote her cause), so she sees in Verena an effective straw man, the public face of her own ideas.
Verena herself finds role this appealing, and the two women link up to train her for a campaign of public speaking. Olive pays off Verena’s parents to stay out of the way. At the start of the story, however, a distant cousin of Olive’s—Basil Ransom, a southerner displaced by the Civil War—sets himself up in opposition, both to feminism and to Verena Tarrant as its public face. He gradually becomes obsessed with keeping Verena out of the public eye. Verena herself is a creature determined to try to please everybody (more of James’s notion of ironies swirling around feminism).
Nobody comes out of this conflict smelling like a rose, though a couple of minor characters earn some grudging respect, notably an aged activist (veteran of efforts to aid the slaves during the war), Miss Birdseye, and a strange female physician who seems to be a case of Asperger’s syndrome. Everyone else carries self-interest to the point of caricature.
With characters like these, this is not a particularly pleasant book to read. Left to myself I would have taken sides, probably with the unfortunate Miss Chancellor, but James is determined to keep the reader from rooting for anyone. He’s dismissive of the wrongs addressed by feminism and seems at times to share Mr. Ransom’s view that anyone passionate about anything is guilty of vulgarity. The essential bankruptcy of this point of view made the melodramatic scene at the climax the most vulgar thing of all. Not for me.
The Bostonians offers a panorama of the American caste system, with characters ranging from New York Brahmins to newspapermen (the lowest of the low) and faith-healing hucksters. Nice try, but James is standing in his own light when he attempts to infuse this story with any kind of energy.
Miss Verena Tarrant is the pretty and verbally gifted daughter of a faith-healing huckster, a man who is not so successful as to save his family from living a hand-to-mouth existence. Verena gets introduced to the politically active subculture of Boston when she makes an impromptu speech about the rights of women, and she is immediately taken up by one of the most earnest of the cause’s adherents, the well-to-do Olive Chancellor. Olive is a devotee but crippled in her own activism by acute shyness and lack of charm (James is alive to the irony of a feminist requiring charm to promote her cause), so she sees in Verena an effective straw man, the public face of her own ideas.
Verena herself finds role this appealing, and the two women link up to train her for a campaign of public speaking. Olive pays off Verena’s parents to stay out of the way. At the start of the story, however, a distant cousin of Olive’s—Basil Ransom, a southerner displaced by the Civil War—sets himself up in opposition, both to feminism and to Verena Tarrant as its public face. He gradually becomes obsessed with keeping Verena out of the public eye. Verena herself is a creature determined to try to please everybody (more of James’s notion of ironies swirling around feminism).
Nobody comes out of this conflict smelling like a rose, though a couple of minor characters earn some grudging respect, notably an aged activist (veteran of efforts to aid the slaves during the war), Miss Birdseye, and a strange female physician who seems to be a case of Asperger’s syndrome. Everyone else carries self-interest to the point of caricature.
With characters like these, this is not a particularly pleasant book to read. Left to myself I would have taken sides, probably with the unfortunate Miss Chancellor, but James is determined to keep the reader from rooting for anyone. He’s dismissive of the wrongs addressed by feminism and seems at times to share Mr. Ransom’s view that anyone passionate about anything is guilty of vulgarity. The essential bankruptcy of this point of view made the melodramatic scene at the climax the most vulgar thing of all. Not for me.
December 4, 2022
Henry James is a great writer and I enjoyed "The portrait of a lady", "The turn of the screw" and other of his works, but not very much this one.
It was unbelievably slow, with the use of reported speech instead of the dialogues in the first half, and it took me an effort to finish it.
The story is not bad: Verena Tarrant, a young and naive woman who's good at speak in public, becomes the object of obsession of two cousins. Olive, who believes in women emancipation and hates man, would like her to become a leader of the movement; Basil, who thinks that women's place is the domestic hearth, wants to have her only for himself.
So starts a struggle between the two strong wills to control Verena.
It's very psychological and sometimes I enjoyed it, but the ending disappointed me.
It was unbelievably slow, with the use of reported speech instead of the dialogues in the first half, and it took me an effort to finish it.
The story is not bad: Verena Tarrant, a young and naive woman who's good at speak in public, becomes the object of obsession of two cousins. Olive, who believes in women emancipation and hates man, would like her to become a leader of the movement; Basil, who thinks that women's place is the domestic hearth, wants to have her only for himself.
So starts a struggle between the two strong wills to control Verena.
It's very psychological and sometimes I enjoyed it, but the ending disappointed me.
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