Victorian Era Abroad: Q1: The Bostonians by Henry James

Henry James is an interesting author. He is usually called an American-British author - he changed his citizenship from American to British in 1915 although he had moved permanently to Europe as early as 1875. He traveled a lot and met and befriended most of the big authors of the era: Zola, Maupassant, Turgenev, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Singer Sargent, Dickens (to name a few). Most of his works were written and published while he was in Europe and his style had always been almost a bridge between the European style and the American one - he belongs to both but does not really belong to either.

The Bostonians was initially serialized in The Century in 1885–1886, a serialization arranged by the Boston publisher James R. Osgood & Co. in the usual way of the times - finish the serialization, publish it as a book before that. Except that the publisher went bankrupt before the serialization managed to finish and James was left without a publisher and without any money even for the serialization. Macmillan and Co. stepped up, bought the novel and published it in a three-volume edition in Britain in February 1886, and in a one-volume edition in the US in May 1886.

It is strongly influenced by the French authors he kept in contact with (and followed the careers of) but it is also very distinct from them - James has a style which is sometimes hard to pinpoint but is present in all his works. It is different from most of his works - it deals with politics, feminism and the general role of women in society. It was not a commercial success when it was published (not very surprising considering that it was hard to really define). But that mix of American, British and French influences makes him the perfect author to start our international journey with - especially because we are headed to the Continent after that.

The novel was filmed in 1984 with Christopher Reeve, Vanessa Redgrave and Madeleine Potter in the 3 main roles. So if like watching screen adaptation of what you read, you may want to check that one as well.

I generally find that the better the book, the more unsatisfying the movie version, but The Bostonians is an exception. Great casting, and fidelity to the book. The first time I read The Bostonians, 50+ years ago, I was almost late for work at my summer job because I wanted to know how it ended and my copy of the book—-a “complete American novels of Henry James”—-was too big to take on the bus. Had to leave with two pages to go and still uncertain about the main character’s decision. Still remember returning home to the power of the book’s very last line.

>4 nohrt4me2: Dr Tarrant is a grifter exploiting his daughter for profit under the guise of offering healing and comfort. The motives of the other do-gooders in the book are likewise seldom straightforward or selfless.

My copy of the book arrived this week, so it is next up once I finish another book this evening. I'm excited to finally be able to get going with it.

I've just started and have read the first few chapters. My impressions so far are positive. I have largely avoided James since reading two books by him in school many many years ago, Portrait of a Lady and Turn of the Screw, but obviously my reading tastes are a bit more mature now. So now I'm thinking this may be a new (to me) author with a lot of unread books for me to explore.
Compared to the British Victorians I've read, I'm interested in how "American" the book and these characters are. Basil being from Mississippi (wasn't expecting a main character in a James novel to be from Mississippi) with references to his soft accent. And the references to the Civil War--such a seminal event in American history never referred to in the British Victorians.

>9 arubabookwoman: The fact that Basil is a Southerner is crucial to his character and one of the many ways in which he is in inherent conflict with the group surrounding his cousin Olive. One would have to go back to a British novel set after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie to see an English (or Scottish) author exploit the personal implications of a national divide.

>9 arubabookwoman: Part of why I selected that one from James and not one of the more popular ones was exactly because of its non-Britishness. Some of his others are much closer to the style of the British Victorians and may as well be one of them. :)

>12 nohrt4me2: I did not say that James was like a British Victorian author. I said that some of his novels can as well be British Victorian novels. Even if my sentence does not parse very well, I was talking about novels, not about him. :)

>10 booksaplenty1949: One would have to go back to a British novel set after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie to see an English (or Scottish) author exploit the personal implications of a national divide.

Despite the 1707 Acts of Union, the vast majority of Scots were against union. Scotland and England were separate nations with separate Parliaments, albeit with a shared monarch. The idea of a national divide after Culloden holds true within Scotland. However, to call differences between England and Scotland a national divide doesn't seem appropriate - it was a divide between two countries, not one.

English authors usually paid very little attention to Scotland, other than having minor stock characters. Scottish politics was not something that engaged them. You would have to look to Scottish authors for that.

>12 nohrt4me2: Thanks for using the spoiler function since we are all at different places in the novel.

>14 SassyLassy: I meant within Scotland itself, not a divide between Scotland and England. And presumably there were English people who supported the idea of Stuart restoration, so there must have been some division there as well, lingering into the succeeding reigns. Have to admit that an example of a novel exploring this division does not leap to mind.

>15 booksaplenty1949: Okay - Scott was good at that, as looking at your library, you already know:)

>15 booksaplenty1949: First volume in my collected Waverley Novels, purchased at a church basement book sale when I was a teenager, fell apart as I read it, so I have to admit they now serve a decorative function only.

Am rereading. An immediate difference I notice between this novel and British novels I regard as “Victorian” (most from the earlier part of her reign) is the dominance of the third person omniscient narrator to the exclusion of dialogue or the inner monologue of a first person narrator. Why did James ever think he could be a playwright?

The subtlety of the presentation of Olive’s sexual attraction to Verena is extraordinary.

Finished this book. As with my first reading, found it difficult to tear myself away from last pages despite having somewhere to get to. And this time I knew how it ended! Had a better sense, third time round, that Verena was first and foremost a “pleaser,” with no particular commitment to Women’s Rights per se. She has to choose between two people competing for her affection. Olive Chancellor is a True Believer, but her assessment of Verena’s value to the movement is hopelessly biased, the excuse she uses to cover what is clearly a romantic attraction. The depiction of the crowd at the sold-out public meeting Verena is to address at the end of the novel, and the newspaperman Matthew Pardon who is covering it, dissipate any idea we might have that James is weighing in on the philosophical merits of the Feminist Movement, to which Verena’s intended speaking tour bears the same relationship as her father’s mesmeric healing does to medical science.