Henry James 
The Bostonians 

‘The Bostonians’ was first published as a serial in
The Century Magazine in 1885-1886, then as a three volume novel in February 1886. 



This novel is generally regarded at the high point of what is called the ‘middle period’ of Henry James’ development as a novelist. The novel came after he had re-visited America in the middle of the decade following the death of his parents. It is set in Boston and New York; and it clearly reflects some of his contemporary impressions on the nation, written as a native American. The novel as a matter of fact includes some rather touching reflections on the Civil War, which had only concluded twenty years before (and in which James had not participated). But its principal subject matter is ‘The Woman Question’ – that is, the conflict between traditional views of the role of women in society, and the views of suffragists and what today would be called supporters of women’s liberation.



It is also an extraordinary account of a lesbian relationship, what was called in James’s day, a Boston marriage. The action plays out over the 1870s in the cities of Boston, New York and in the country around Cape Cod. Verena and Olive are activists in the woman’s emancipation movement and have set up house together. Basil Ransom, a Southerner (Civil War only over for 5 or 6 years) and a long-lost distant cousin of Olive, is in love with Verena. The book’s plot and central theme is the battle ground for Verena’s soul: straight or lesbian, on the level of sexuality; modern emancipated woman or typical 19th century hausfrau on a deeper level.