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The Bostonians - Volume 1

Henry James

Book Overview: 

This bittersweet tragicomedy centers on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin and a Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty, young protégée of Olive's in the feminist movement. The storyline concerns the struggle between Ransom and Olive for Verena's allegiance and affection, though the novel also includes a wide panorama of political activists, newspaper people, and quirky eccentrics.(Summary by Wikipedia)

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .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."

Olive thought of Basil Ransom, and wondered whether he would do for an unfriendly element. She mentioned him to Mrs. Farrinder, who expressed an earnest hope that if he were opposed to the principles which were so dear to the rest of them, he might be induced to take the floor and testify on his own account. "I should be so happy to answer him," said Mrs. Farrinder, with supreme softness. "I should be so glad, at any rate, to exchange ideas with him." Olive felt a deep alarm at the idea of a public dispute between these two vigorous people (she had a perception that Ransom would be vigorous), not because she doubted of the happy issue, but because she herself would be in a false position, as having brought the offensive young man, and she had a horror of false positions. Miss Birdseye was incapable of resent. . . Read More

Community Reviews

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 lo

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 i

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

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

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) polit

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

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