Henry James pens a magnificent tale of a power struggle between the sexes in the novel The Bostonians. Olive Chancellor and her sister Adelina Luna are middle-classed Bostonians that live on Charles Street in the late 1800’s. It was a time when voices were rising as people tried to figure out what they believed. Mesmerism and hypnotism ranked high along with the fight for women’s rights during this pre-suffrage era.
Their third cousin, Basil Ransom comes to visit them from New York where he works as a lawyer. He hails from Mississippi and has some very staunch views about women’s place in society. He is critical of most of the people that he meet during his trip until he sees and hears Verena Tarrant speak at an event. Her father is a mesmerist who assists her before she captivates her audiences with her spiel on women’s equality.
Though Basil privately disagrees with this red-hair’s views, he is still intrigued by her. So, is Olive. Olive even pays off her family and has Verena come to live with her. A quiet battle ensues between Basil and Olive to win Verena’s full attention. Olive represents the future of women and Basil represents their old order.
Olive’s sister, Adelina Luna, is quite taken with Basil. She is in fact a bit desperate and does all that she can to trap him through indebtedness. He is striving financially and almost takes her up on her offer until he considers his feelings for Verena.
Basil is determined to win Verena and he comes back to Boston more than once. He even meets Verena and Olive on their getaway at Cape Cod to further state his case. Olive is adamant as she prunes her little protégée for speaking greatness. At times, her obsession with Verena is questionable even to the reader.
At the end of the novel, Verena is about to speak at Boston’s Music Hall which is filled to brim. Basil shows up backstage professing his love and things get really heated. What will Verena do? Will she carry on with the event or go with this naysayer? James ends with these lines, “…she was in tears…these were not the last she was destined to shed.” Read The Bostonians and be the judge.
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Principais avaliações de outros países
Lynn M.
Which Route Will She Take?
Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 1 de julho de 2019
Joy Harmon
Was Henry James a feminist?.
Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 30 de dezembro de 2017
Amazon Customer
A worthwhile, yet painful read.
Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 1 de outubro de 2020
Mentalfloss1
Read James, just not this book
Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 25 de julho de 2017Marilyn Jackson
Difficult to follow wordy presentation
Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 19 de julho de 2019
