Book Review: The Bostonians by Henry James

I finished The Bostonians by Henry James! I knew I would, but it wasn’t an easy process. You see, I won the book from Adam at Roofbeamreader about half a year ago. I won four books, in fact. Two I read (here and here), one I couldn’t finish, and I really felt I had to finish this one, as a 50% rate is rather low on free books!

So, thank you Adam, for introducing me to some new (and old) authors. Henry James’ book was not my favorite of the four. I really struggled to get through it, but it did pick up towards the end.

The Bostonians: What it is about

Our main protagonist, Basil Ransom, is a southerner whose family have lost their property during the Civil War in the US. His cousin, Olive Chancellor, invites him to visit if he’s ever in Boston. He does, and meets Olive, a young feminist, and her sister Mrs. Luna, a widow with a young son.

Although he and Olive don’t seem to get on too well, he is invited to a meeting in the evening, where a young woman, Verena Tarrant, holds an impromptu lecture on feminist topics. He doesn’t share her ideas at all, but is mesmerized by her voice and wants to get to know her better.

Olive, meanwhile, also really likes the girl and invites her to come and stay for a prolonged period of time. Verena falls under the influence of Olive and has set her mind to it that she will never marry, but continue her life just like Olive, and give speeches to convert others to feminism.

Basil keeps in touch with Olive, but only because it brings him to Verena. Eventually he confesses he wants to marry Verena and be in charge of her (since women cannot possibly look after themselves). He proposes to her but she isn’t likely to accept.

The Bostonians: What I thought

I’m afraid I can’t give this book more than two stars, as I struggled too much getting through it (my star rating is an indication of how much I enjoyed the reading experience). Still, I don’t regret reading it, as it had some interesting elements too. It just took too much of my reading time.

Wriiting the What it is about section above, I wondered briefly if I should go to 3 stars, because the story sounds quite good fun. But no, reading it was only fun at some moments.

As many 19th Century authors, Henry James is rather longwinded. Situations are described very much into detail and really, the whole story could probably be told in about 1/3 of the number of pages. Easily.

I liked the ways of the times that were described such as how people would give someone their card, which counted as an open invitation to come and visit. Visiting without a card, as Mr Ransom did several times, was frowned upon. However, since politeness and civility was so important, nothing could be said and the visitor was welcomed anyway.

On the other hand, people could be very rude to each other as well, which was fun to read about.

I was never sure about Olive, but I think she was secretly in love with Basil Ransom. Her sister, Mrs. Luna, definitely wanted him to be her second husband.

Basil Ransom’s un-feminist convictions didn’t bother me. This was how many men thought at the time and if I’d been a man in that time, I’d probably have had the same attitudes. Hey, if I’d been a woman, probably too!

Not really a book for me, but I made it through and the end was worth it. I think.

I got this book: from Adam at RoofBeamReader in a generous giveaway of 4 books

I read this in: English, the original language

Number of pages: 398

First published: 1886

Genre: classic, literary fiction