Страшно ме ядоса и го наказвам с две звезди.

Очаквах много повече финес от Хенри Джеймс такъв, какъвто съм го чела в „Американецът“. Тук видях само много интересна тема и сюжет, превърнат в абсолютен цирк. Ужасни „образи“, толкова плоски, едностранчиви, скучни и разочароващи. И тримата главни герои ми бяха страшно противни, смешни и отблъскващи. Хубавата и оригинална идея е напълно съсипана. Много разсъждения имам относно феминизма, половете и любовта, уви - в тази творба нищо не възбуди желанието ми да ги обсъждам. В живота силно ненавиждам „жени“ като Олив (мегафеминистката, грубиянка, според мен неполучила нито един оргазъм в живота си дори от собствената си ръка), псевдокреатури като Верена (малоумна фасада без грам интелектуална плътност, празноглав червей) и „мъже“ (мачовци, „свръхконсерватори“, но пълни бедняци и духовно, и материално) като Рансъм. В романите пък имам нужда от по-богати, разностранни и благородни (дори в извращенията и злините си) личности.

Твърде много думи и страници в тази книга, които в действителност не казаха нищо съществено. Това също не го обичам никак.

Εκτιμώ λίγο παραπάνω τα βιβλία που με κάνουν να μιλάω μόνος. (Και εξηγούμαι: είναι η στιγμή όπου το βιβλίο έχει καταφέρει να σε απορροφήσει πλήρως και τότε ένας χαρακτήρας κάνει/λέει κάτι συνταρακτικό, οπότε σου ξεφεύγει στον αέρα ένα "Οχιιιι, μην το κάνεις!" ή ένα "Ναιιι" κλπ) Με τις Βοστονέζες μου ξέφυγαν πολλές (παρόμοιες) φράσεις.

Λίγο μετά τον εμφύλιο πόλεμο της Αμερικής, σε μια περίοδο πολιτικής αναδόμησης, όπου παράλληλα εμφανίζονται οι πρώτες φεμινιστικές κινητοποιήσεις , ένας συντηρητικός νεαρός τζέντλεμαν, ερωτεύεται μια από τις ομιλήτριες και εκπροσώπους του παραπάνω κινήματος. Ανάμεσα στον έρωτα του, μπαίνει η ξαδέρφη του, η οποία τρέφει ισχυρά φιλικά(?) αισθήματα για την νεαρή κοπέλα, όπου παροτρύνει συνεχώς να εγκαταλείψει κάθε ιδέα περί γάμου και να συγκεντρωθεί στον ιερό σκοπό τους.

Δεν γίνεται να μην διασκεδάσεις με το ιδιαίτερο τρίγωνο που σχηματίζεται ανάμεσα τους και με τους διαφορετικούς τρόπους όπου διεκδικούν και προσεγγίζουν και οι δύο την νεαρή κοπέλα. Αξιοσημείωτο είναι ότι δεν μπορείς να διαλέξεις πλευρά και δύσκολα θα υποστηρίξεις έναν μόνο από τους δύο σε όλη την διάρκεια του βιβλίου.(Τουλάχιστον εγώ αμφιταλαντεύτηκα αρκετά).
Πέρα όμως από την απολαυστική ερωτική ιστορία, το βιβλίο αποκτάει άλλη υπόσταση όταν συνειδητοποιήσεις την αλληγορία που κρύβεται πίσω από κάθε χαρακτήρα. Όταν καταλάβεις τι εκπροσωπεί ο συντηρητικός τζέντλεμαν, η μαχητική φεμινίστρια, η αφελής κοπέλα και για ποιο λόγο μάχονται.

Η αλήθεια είναι ότι άργησα να καταλάβω το πνεύμα του βιβλίου αλλά μετά από λίγα κεφάλαια συνειδητοποίησα γιατί οι εκδόσεις Gutenberg συμπεριέλαβαν τον παρόν βιβλίο στην εκπληκτική σειρά Orbis Literae.

Διαβάστε το!

First sentence: “Olive will come down in about ten minutes; she told me to tell you that. About ten; that is exactly like Olive. Neither five nor fifteen, and yet not ten exactly, but either nine or eleven. She didn’t tell me to say she was glad to see you, because she doesn’t know whether she is or not, and she wouldn’t for the world expose herself to telling a fib. She is very honest, is Olive Chancellor; she is full of rectitude. Nobody tells fibs in Boston; I don’t know what to make of them all. Well, I am very glad to see you, at any rate.”

Premise/plot: Does The Bostonians have a plot??? It isn't so much about a destination as the journey. So this is a 'problem' novel of sorts. Many of the characters are active in the women's rights movement. (Remember this one was published in 1886.)

It's told from multiple view points: Basil Ransom, Olive Chancellor, and Verena Tarrant; it introduces a handful of other characters as well. (My favorite side character is Doctor Prance.)

So it opens with Basil Ransom paying a visit on Olive Chancellor. She's running late and so he is conversing with her widowed sister Adeline Luna. (She seems REALLY into him throughout the whole book. He seems to be the stereotypical Southern flirt; he can't help flirting with any/every woman.) Olive and Basil CLASH. And not in a Pride and Prejudice way where readers get the idea that the two are destined to live happily ever after together. But the evening isn't a total failure because he ends up going to a larger event where the feminists are talking/rallying. He sees Verena Tarrant, and if he was a cartoon character, his eyes would turn into hearts and pop out of his eyes. Unfortunately, he's not the only one who's fallen for Verena. Olive also has major heart eyes for Verena. So much so that she practically begs Verena to move in with her permanently.

The rest of the book is about (if the book actually has a plot) Olive trying desperately to hold onto Verena and mold her into the person she wants her to be. A world-changing, man-hating public speaker that is so committed to the doctrines of feminism or women's rights that there isn't even a teeny tiny space left in her heart for a man--any man.

Basil comes and goes out of the story. He never forgets Verena. But he is rarely openly seeking or wooing Verena. He does maintain a rather close friendship (when it's convenient to him) with Mrs. Luna (Olive's sister).

Will Verena escape Olive's manipulations and marry? Or will she become a world-famous spokeswoman for a radical movement?

My thoughts: I didn't really like any of the characters--at least any of the main characters. I really didn't feel like readers got a true idea of who Verena actually was. Probably because James didn't bother developing her as such--her very own person. Verena was the coveted prize between two stronger characters: Olive and Basil. Basil doesn't come across as a woman-hater--one who would keep women down for the sake of keeping women down. He does come across as someone smitten by a beautiful young woman. He doesn't believe in the cause, but he's not angry and aggressive about it. He's a fairly laid back character.

My favorite character was Doctor Prance, a woman doctor, who doesn't believe in the CAUSE either but for her own reasons. She's only in perhaps three or four scenes of the book--but she's a scene stealer when she is there. I really found myself drawn to her character.

I didn't like the characters or the story, but there is something about James' writing that kept me hooked.

Quotes:

“Do you mean to say your sister’s a roaring radical?” “A radical? She’s a female Jacobin—she’s a nihilist. Whatever is, is wrong, and all that sort of thing. If you are going to dine with her, you had better know it.”
Many things were strange to Basil Ransom; Boston especially was strewn with surprises, and he was a man who liked to understand. Mrs. Luna was drawing on her gloves; Ransom had never seen any that were so long; they reminded him of stockings, and he wondered how she managed without garters above the elbow.
“Oh, it isn’t the city; it’s just Olive Chancellor. She would reform the solar system if she could get hold of it. She’ll reform you, if you don’t look out. That’s the way I found her when I returned from Europe.”
It was the usual things of life that filled her with silent rage; which was natural enough, inasmuch as, to her vision, almost everything that was usual was iniquitous.
Olive had a fear of everything, but her greatest fear was of being afraid. She wished immensely to be generous, and how could one be generous unless one ran a risk?
“If, as you say, there is to be a discussion, there will be different sides, and of course one can’t sympathise with both.” “Yes, but every one will, in his way—or in her way—plead the cause of the new truths. If you don’t care for them, you won’t go with us.”
“Don’t you believe, then, in the coming of a better day—in its being possible to do something for the human race?”
“Well, Miss Olive,” he answered, putting on again his big hat, which he had been holding in his lap, “what strikes me most is that the human race has got to bear its troubles.”
“Oh, the position of women!” Basil Ransom exclaimed. “The position of women is to make fools of men. I would change my position for yours any day,” he went on. “That’s what I said to myself as I sat there in your elegant home.”
“Well, did she convince you?” Ransom inquired. “Convince me of what, sir?” “That women are so superior to men.” “Oh, deary me!” said Doctor Prance, with a little impatient sigh; “I guess I know more about women than she does.” “And that isn’t your opinion, I hope,” said Ransom, laughing. “Men and women are all the same to me,” Doctor Prance remarked. “I don’t see any difference. There is room for improvement in both sexes. Neither of them is up to the standard.”
We must remember that the world is ours too, ours—little as we have ever had to say about anything!—and that the question is not yet definitely settled whether it shall be a place of injustice or a place of love!
“You don’t know me, but I want to know you,” Olive said. “I can thank you now. Will you come and see me?” “Oh yes; where do you live?” Verena answered, in the tone of a girl for whom an invitation (she hadn’t so many) was always an invitation. “I want to know you,” Olive said, on this occasion; “I felt that I must last night, as soon as I heard you speak. You seem to me very wonderful. I don’t know what to make of you. I think we ought to be friends; so I just asked you to come to me straight off, without preliminaries, and I believed you would come. It is so right that you have come, and it proves how right I was.”
“Will you be my friend, my friend of friends, beyond every one, everything, for ever and for ever?” Her face was full of eagerness and tenderness. Verena gave a laugh of clear amusement, without a shade of embarrassment or confusion. “Perhaps you like me too much.”
“Do you live here all alone?” she asked of Olive. “I shouldn’t if you would come and live with me!” Even this really passionate rejoinder failed to make Verena shrink; she thought it so possible that in the wealthy class people made each other such easy proposals.
Do you really take the ground that your sex has been without influence? Influence? Why, you have led us all by the nose to where we are now! Wherever we are, it’s all you. You are at the bottom of everything.”
“I am not angry—I am anxious. I am so afraid I shall lose you. Verena, don’t fail me—don’t fail me!” Olive spoke low, with a kind of passion. “Fail you? How can I fail?”
But any man who pretends to accept our programme in toto, as you and I understand it, of his own free will, before he is forced to—such a person simply schemes to betray us. There are gentlemen in plenty who would be glad to stop your mouth by kissing you!
“You do keep me up,” Verena went on. “You are my conscience.” “I should like to be able to say that you are my form—my envelope. But you are too beautiful for that!”
He had been diligent, he had been ambitious, but he had not yet been successful.
“It does come back to me now, what you told me about the growth of their intimacy. And do they mean to go on living together for ever?” “I suppose so—unless some one should take it into his head to marry Verena.”
Duty should be obvious; one shouldn’t hunt round for it.
Are you a little girl of ten and she your governess? Haven’t you any liberty at all, and is she always watching you and holding you to an account? Have you such vagabond instincts that you are only thought safe when you are between four walls?
Doctor Prance dealt in facts; Ransom had already discovered that; and some of her facts were very interesting.
“Women—women! You know much about them!” “I am learning something every day.” “You haven’t learned yet, apparently, to answer their letters. It’s rather a surprise to me that you don’t pretend not to have received mine.”

Viewed through the lens of the 2016 presidential election, this book deserves five stars. James’ novel, set during early American feminism, acts as a political allegory for white women voters in the 2016 election. Despite many Trump-era reading lists, “The Bostonians” is rarely recommended for post-2016 insights due to its challenging nature. However, James's novels are known to reward patient readers.

I'll never consider myself a Henry James "fan." Of the Henry James novels that I've read, I'd probably put them in the following order (from best to worst):

1. The Portrait of a Lady
2. The Golden Bowl
3. Washington Square
4. The Bostonians
5. The Ambassadors

My average rating for these five books is *2.4/5 stars.*

I should probably write a proper review for The Bostonians, but in all honesty, I just don't want to. It was a struggle for me just to finish the novel, & I hope that I will never be forced to revisit this novel or recall its details ever again. I had hoped that this novel would provide readers with a glimpse of 19th-century Boston (and the intellectual Cambridge area, in particular). Unfortunately, its focus was on a core cast of characters (none of whom I found captivating), & the novel, as a whole, was a satire of The Women's Movement. I realize from reading several reviews that many readers found this novel funny, but I wasn't at all amused. If anything, I found it disgusting.

A dismal *1.5/5 stars*

This is a tough James to love - none of the main characters are likeable, and while one (Verena) is only a cipher, the other two, Olive Chancellor and Basil Ransom, are pretty actively dislikeable. James is never terse, so this is quite a lot of time to spend in a static love triangle where sour Olive and smarmy conceited Basil battle for the beautiful but susceptible Verena. Some of the minor characters are far more engaging (I'm looking at you, Dr. Prance), and if Henry has a favorite in this book I'd guess it's this independent minded but non-doctrinaire woman.

The rest is satirizing on Bostonian do-gooders and idealists, especially feminists, and the retrograde secessionist who swans about being smugly superior and priding himself on the fact that, although he is to all outwards appearances a failure, he's still got one up on Olive because he has a d*** (you can practically hear Ransome thinking aloud that "a lesbian is just a woman who hasn't met the right man yet"). James' satire is a little too misanthropic (and misogynist) here to be much fun.

There's a certain macabre joke here in that the tiresome political types of the late 19th century seem snatched from today's (tiresome) headlines. Olive's insistence on ideological purity (and no fun) finds its match in the current moment's more doctrinaire woke liberals and as for Basil, well, I don't think he'd be so uncouth as to wear a MAGA hat or tweet "your body, my choice" (after all, Southern chivalry), he's certainly thought those things while watching Joe Rogan and "doing his own research."

The foibles of liberal reformism.

A frustrated/extremely possessive lesbian feminist and a provincial/ambitious/obnoxious/relentless southerner compete for the absolute (and I mean absolute, these people do not understand the meaning of "casual") love of a charming (yet weak) young girl. Who wins? Well, the patriarchy, of course.

Newsflash: Henry James is funny! Seriously, he likes to laugh. And he's good at it. Who knew? The opening of this book reads like a farce, a comedy of manners, a vicious taking apart of characters worthy of Oscar Wilde. It does diminish and get rather more serious over the course of the novel, but it never entirely goes away. Henry's vicious! In a good way. I mean, you may feel a little bad as he chooses to rip into the feminist movement as a target, but at least his chosen characters fully deserve it. (I will warn you that you will be thinking of creative ways for Olive Chancellor to die after the first fifty pages or so. Or wishing that James sent her to a lesbian whorehouse to work out her issues. Man.) And to be fair, it isn't just the feminists he attacks. He attacks everyone! But not only attack. He does make the characters complex. Olive's a fascinating study in repressed homosexuality, Verena's a beautiful contradiction that represents a question of what is more important in life, Basil Ransom is a really attractive bastard who might not be totally wrong in his outlook on life.

As another note, his style here is very different from Portrait of a Lady. He spends more time describing ambiance, environment, surroundings, than is his reputation. And when his turn of phrase turns much more towards the witty and clever, it definitely sacrifices the tone that he created in Portrait and from what I understand, the majority of his other works.

Unexpected page turner. I picked it up and put it down, but once I picked it up again, I'd read 50 pages in a blink.

Once again: Henry James has a sense of humor! No, seriously. You have to read this to believe me. It's amazing!

This is such a spiteful little book. It took me way too long and it’s not because it wasn’t engaging but because it was so hard to force myself to re-enter this hateful little world. Who knew HJ was such a hater. He doesn’t hate women, that’s very clear, but he does hate the woman who seeks to emancipate herself through public action, he kills them to prove a point. Does have its moments of beauty (and almost explicit homosexuality!) but it’s mostly held down by James’ fear of writing tougher, ideological passages, and his hatred of his own characters. I know he’s better than this!

Very artful writing, as always with Henry James, but overwrought characters and a crappy, formulaic, typically chauvinist ending.

Sarà che ho perso l'abitudine di leggere classici, ma ho trovato la prosa scialba e gli interventi del narratore insopportabili. Mi ha fatto addormentare più volte, e non è un eufemismo. La trama è priva di consequenzialità logica, con arresti e saliscendi arbitrari in cui nessun personaggio evolve davvero. La storia ruota attorno agli ambienti femministi tardo-ottocenteschi, ma prende una piega terribilmente sessista, e alla fine fa trionfare il protagonista maschile, personaggio privo di caratteristiche redimenti, senza una vera giustificazione o un vero merito. Va bene che è stato scritto da un uomo, ma speravo in qualcosa di meglio. Due stelle solo per qualche rara immagine efficace e la potenzialità (sprecata) di alcuni spunti.