The Bostonians

The Bostonians, by American-born author Henry James, was first published as a serial in 1885-1886 and then as a full novel in 1886. Henry James wrote in the tradition of realism, a late-19th century movement that was a response to Romanticism and Transcendentalism. On the surface, The Bostonians is about the competition between a Northern feminist, Olive Chancellor, and a Southern conservative, Basil Ransom, to win the attention of a young woman named Verena Tarrant: Olive wants to enlist her in the cause, and Basil wants to make her a traditional wife. However, at its core, The Bostonians is about how post-Civil War America was torn between traditional and modern values. The novel is ambivalent about progress, showing Basil’s views as old-fashioned and obsolete, and the feminists’ tactics as oppressive, spiteful, and unreasonable. By exploring the inner lives of the characters, the novel comments on the effects of Reconstruction, which sought to ease the Confederate states back into the Union and to rebuild the devastated South. Neither critics nor readers received The Bostonians well, and James did not write another novel focused on political themes. This guide refers to the Penguin Classics edition edited by Richard Lansdown.