February '13 / James Reading: The Bostonians

[Dark Muse]

I wondered about the names too. Particularly Basil Ransom, Mrs. Birdseye and Mrs. Luna struck out in my mind, as they all are both rather unusual sounding names, and of course they are also names that have other meanings.

[Gladys]

I wondered about the names too. Particularly Basil Ransom, Mrs. Birdseye and Mrs. Luna struck out in my mind, as they all are both rather unusual sounding names, and of course they are also names that have other meanings.

Out of curiosity, I checked the names of characters in the dozen, or so, Henry James' novels and novellas I've read. My impression is that names are chosen to accurately reflect the status - the social standing - of each character's family. By contrast, in the plays of Henrik Ibsen, names often code for much, much more.

Almost halfway through the novel, everything seems to have followed a more or less predictable course. But Verena is becoming increasingly interesting. I wonder how will ultimately Olive react.

[Scheherazade]

In Daisy Miller, if I remember correctly, the names reflected more than status. For example, Winterbourne had that cold, reserved attitude. However, Daisy's surname, Miller, did reflect her status (a common family who came into money through their trade).

I find the relationtionship between Olive and Verena interesting and somewhat suspicious - at least where Olive is concerned. I feel she is not honest and open even with herself. If Verena looked different (say, like Olive herself) would she have reacted in the same way?

Basil remains to be my favourite character in the book so far and Mrs Luna. I am only onto Ch. 15 yet but I am secretly hoping that those two end up together somehow.

I know, ever the romantic me!

Verena:

According to tradition, Saint Verena joined the Theban Legion in its mission to Rhaetia (part of modern day Switzerland) and was a relative of Saint Victor of the Theban Legion. The soldiers' relatives were allowed to accompany them in order to look after them and take care of their wounds.

When Saint Maurice, Saint Victor and the other members of the Theban Legion were martyred, Saint Verena led the life of a hermit. First, she settled in a place called Solothurn, but later moved into a cave near present-day Zurich. she comes from Garagous village, Qous, Qena, Egypt. As a hermit, Verena fasted and prayed continuously. According to tradition, she performed several miracles. Verena was particularly concerned over young girls and used to look after them spiritually and physically, due to her expertise as a nurse.

As a result of her fame, legend states that the local governor arrested her and sent her to jail, where Saint Maurice appeared to her to console and strengthen her. She was released from jail, and continued to perform miracles. Due to her, many converted to Christianity. Saint Verena was interested in serving the poor and used to offer them food. Moreover, she enjoyed serving the sick, especially those suffering from leprosy. She used to wash their wounds and put ointments on them, not fearing infection. She died at Switzerland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verena

[Gladys]

In Daisy Miller, if I remember correctly, the names reflected more than status. For example, Winterbourne had that cold, reserved attitude. However, Daisy's surname, Miller, did reflect her status (a common family who came into money through their trade).

Having read the novella long ago, I do not remember Winterbourne as especially cold. But I do appreciate the irony in his name after reading this Wiki quote (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Miller):

The names of the characters are also symbolic. Daisy is a flower in full bloom, without inhibitions and in the springtime of her life. Daisy contrasts sharply with Winterbourne. Flowers die in winter and this is precisely what happens to Daisy, after catching the Roman Fever. As an objective analogue to this psychological reality, Daisy catches the very real Roman fever, the malaria that was endemic to many Roman neighborhoods in the 19th century. The issue on which the novella turns is the "innocence" of Daisy.

I find the relationship between Olive and Verena interesting and somewhat suspicious - at least where Olive is concerned. I feel she is not honest and open even with herself. If Verena looked different (say, like Olive herself) would she have reacted in the same way?

I believe Olive's interest in Verena is overtly driven by the expected impact of her beauty, personality and eloquence on the suffragette cause. For Olive, Verena's a means to a sacred end. Where's the dishonesty here?

As for St Verena, we shall see!

[mona amon]

Hi everyone! I've started reading this and I'm in chapter nine, I think. It's OK so far. Still waiting for it to really draw me in.

[Gladys]

Hi Mona, and welcome. I'm up to Chapter 31 and enjoying the book, but these comments relate to Chapter 24 and earlier.

...but Verena never changed colour; it was either not new or not disagreeable to her that the authors of her being should be bought off, silenced by money, treated as the troublesome of the lower orders are treated when they are not locked up; so that her friend had a perception, after this, that it would probably be impossible in any way ever to offend her. She was too rancourless, too detached from conventional standards, too free from private self-reference. It was too much to say of her that she forgave injuries, since she was not conscious of them; there was in forgiveness a certain arrogance of which she was incapable, and her bright mildness glided over the many traps that life sets for our consistency.

Verena is remarkable indeed. So remarkable that she will present an unexpected threat to both Olive and Basil, who so wish to manipulate her?

Adeline guessed Olive had perfect control of her now, unless indeed she used the expeditions to Cambridge as a cover for meeting gentlemen. She was an artful little minx, and cared as much for the rights of women as she did for the Panama Canal; the only right of a woman she wanted was to climb up on top of something, where the men could look at her. She would stay with Olive as long as it served her purpose, because Olive, with her great respectability, could push her, and counteract the effect of her low relations, to say nothing of paying all her expenses and taking her the tour of Europe. "But, mark my words," said Mrs. Luna, "she will give Olive the greatest cut she has ever had in her life. She will run off with some lion-tamer; she will marry a circus-man!" And Mrs. Luna added that it would serve Olive Chancellor right. But she would take it hard; look out for tantrums then!

In her critique of Verena Tarrant, Adeline Luna, as always exaggerates; but the forecast of high-order tantrums from Olive is surely prophetic. Yet how will these tantrums be reconciled with: She is very honest, is Olive Chancellor; she is full of rectitude?

Also prophetic are venerable Miss Birdseye's parting words to Basil Ransom. A marvellous understatement I suspect.

And while, lifting and pushing, he was helping again to insert her into the oblong receptacle, she turned a little and repeated, "She will affect you! If that's to be your secret, I will keep it," Ransom heard her subjoin.

[Scheherazade]

I believe Olive's interest in Verena is overtly driven by the expected impact of her beauty, personality and eloquence on the suffragette cause. For Olive, Verena's a means to a sacred end. Where's the dishonesty here?

As for St Verena, we shall see!

I think it was DM who mentioned earlier the possibility of some romantic infatuation on Olive's behalf and I agree with that as well; that is what I meant when I said Olive was not being entirely honest with herself. She does seem to want Verena for their "cause" but I still think (started Ch 25) there is an attachment that goes beyond camaraderie.

Despite having past the half-way spot in the book, I feel we still don't know much about Verena. She seems to be saying and doing the "right things" all the time and Mrs Luna is probably right in her assessment of her (as quoted by Olive). She is bound to cause some kind of disappointment sooner or later.

Enjoying the book though it is a more challenging book than I expected.

[Gladys]

Despite having past the half-way spot in the book, I feel we still don't know much about Verena. She seems to be saying and doing the "right things" all the time and Mrs Luna is probably right in her assessment of her (as quoted by Olive).

As quoted by Olive? Do you mean: as narrated?

By chapter 32, we have learnt rather more about Verena without taint to her sublimity. I sense she is much deeper than she seems. But I have no good reason to accuse Olive of carnal attraction to Verena.

As for The Bostonians being challenging book, I am finding it easy reading compared to most Henry James novels. Try The Ambassadors if you seek a real challenge. The novellas tend to be easier.

As for Mrs Luna tying the knot with Basil Ransom, forget it!

[mona amon]

As for Mrs Luna tying the knot with Basil Ransom, forget it!

Aww! I was hoping that they would.

I haven't come much further than when I last posted, but I feel the same way as Scher and DM about Olive's feelings for Verena. It seems like a romantic infatuation, though probably asexual.

[Gladys]

...I feel the same way as Scher and DM about Olive's feelings for Verena. It seems like a romantic infatuation, though probably asexual.

Certainly Olive's infatuation is romantic.

But why assume that Olive's romance pertains to a sensual feelings for Verena? More likely, Olive is swooning with a romantic notion that she will blossom as the beneficent patron of the suffragette movement's young Joan of Arc. Hence her recurring jealousy when she fears Verena might escape her patronage. Olive Chancellor is at times a little embarrassed by this self-indulgent romantic infatuation but, repressing her selfish leanings, she strives to act righteously. The movement is her life.

[Scheherazade]

As quoted by Olive? Do you mean: as narrated?

Meant to say ".... as quoted by Gladys" actually... But seems like I have Olive in mind (no, not an infatuation).

By chapter 32, we have learnt rather more about Verena without taint to her sublimity. I sense she is much deeper than she seems. But I have no good reason to accuse Olive of carnal attraction to Verena.

No, not carnal but utterly romantic... I am not sure Olive would be capable of "carnal" feelings or, rather, admitting and accepting those. She's one of the most interesting characters I have read in a long while. What a brilliant job, James does while depicting her with quick, succinct descriptions.

As for The Bostonians being challenging book, I am finding it easy reading compared to most Henry James novels. Try The Ambassadors if you seek a real challenge. The novellas tend to be easier.

I did not say it was a challenging book but that it turned out to be more challenging than I had expected. I thought it would be a story similar to Age of Innocence but I am pleasantly surprised.

[Gladys]

She's [Olive] one of the most interesting characters I have read in a long while.

By Chapter 36, Verena has become just as interesting, as indeed has the novel as a whole. The Henry James' novel Washington Square (named after an affluent locality in New York, where Olive Chancellor walks to calm her nerves concerning Verena's future) also becomes suddenly interesting, well past the novel's half-way mark.

And I do love the dry and direct Dr. Mary J. Prance.

I'm thrilled you're still reading, Scheherazade. The last forum book club I joined - reading Walter Scott's Rob Roy, full of Scottish dialect - left me the lone reader.

[Gladys]

I'm approaching the end of the book and to say I'm engrossed is an understatement. This is some novel, and I'm zealously struggling to imagine the ending. For those seeking a love story, the courting of Verena by Basil Ransom, and her delightful acquiescence, should satisfy the most demanding of tastes.

Without spoiling the plot, here are a few observations.

She would make any sacrifice for affection.

Verena speaking of her mother. Like mother, like daughter?

"Miss Birdseye said you would convert me, but you haven't yet," it came into his head to say. "You can't tell yet; wait a little. My influence is peculiar; it sometimes comes out a long time afterwards!"

Verena the prophet?

...as they walked it came over her that some of the things he had said to her were far beyond what Olive could have imagined as the very worst possible.

Verena seems incapable of taking offence - strange though it seems.

It was plain Doctor Prance didn't go into that kind of analysis. If Ransom had complained to her of a sore throat she would have inquired with precision about his symptoms; but she was incapable of asking him any question with a social bearing.

The seriously unflappable Dr Prance.

her mortal remains were to be committed to their rest in the little cemetery at Marmion, in sight of the pretty sea-view she loved to gaze at, among old mossy headstones of mariners and fisher-folk. She had seen the place when she first came down, when she was able to drive out a little, and she had said she thought it must be pleasant to lie there. It was not an injunction, a definite request; it had not occurred to Miss Birdseye, at the end of her days, to take an exacting line or to make, for the first time in eighty years, a personal claim.

A superb encapsulation of the life of Miss Birdseye.

[Gladys]

I found the book riveting reading, especially the last hundred pages. The ending is fascinating. Mrs Luna's early foreshadowing seems, on first sight, to get the basic facts of the ending more or less right:

[Verena] was an artful little minx, and cared as much for the rights of women as she did for the Panama Canal... She would stay with Olive as long as it served her purpose, because Olive, with her great respectability, could push her, and counteract the effect of her low relations, to say nothing of paying all her expenses and taking her the tour of Europe. "But, mark my words," said Mrs. Luna, "she will give Olive the greatest cut she has ever had in her life. She will run off with some lion-tamer; she will marry a circus-man!" And Mrs. Luna added that it would serve Olive Chancellor right. But she would take it hard; look out for tantrums then!

But a longer reflection on the ending suggests something rather different. Verena's main concern, even once committed to Basil Ransom, definitely appears to be the lapsing of her feminist address to the Boston audience. She gives this up, for the same reason she does most things: [she] would make any sacrifice for affection, and Ransom offers this in abundance. The dying Miss Birdseye appeals to Verena in a similar way to Ransom and, I suspect, to similar effect!

The novel ends with the hooded Verena walking with Ransom into the street, in tears. I think she's crying over a newly found passion for the suffragette cause, ignited by the dying Miss Birdseye. That Verena is destined to shed many more tears is surely a vindication of Miss Birdseye's prophesies:

Of course he [Ransom] took it now, and even held it a moment; he didn't like being dismissed, and was thinking of pretexts to linger. "Miss Birdseye said you would convert me, but you haven't yet," it came into his head to say. "You can't tell yet; wait a little. My influence is peculiar; it sometimes comes out a long time afterwards!" This speech, on Verena's part, was evidently perfunctory, and the grandeur of her self-reference jocular; she was much more serious when she went on quickly, "Do you mean to say Miss Birdseye promised you that?"

And the charismatic octogenarian dying sentiment says it all:

You mustn't think there's no progress because you don't see it all right off; that's what I wanted to say. It isn't till you have gone a long way that you can feel what's been done.

Ransom (the primary subject of the novel) will succumb, in time. A sublime ending.

[mona amon]

This post may contain **SPOILERS**

Finished reading a while back and thought I'd already posted this and then discovered I'd only saved it somewhere. I liked it very much, though I'm not sure I should have given it five stars, a rating I reserve only for the very best books. I was so carried away by the complete rout of Olive at the end, LOL. It was the ending I was really hoping for, and I was so scared that Verena would turn out to be a perverse wretch like Isabel Archer and go back to Olive, but what a resounding victory for Basil!

On second thoughts, I wonder if it is really fair for a male writer to vent his feelings about suffragettes in this way - he's such a good writer he makes everything so convincing!

Gladys, your comments were very interesting. I'm not so sure that Ransom will succumb in the end. Henry James hardly gives us any hints about what will happen after the novel has ended. It was the same with Portrait of a Lady. I really couldn't imagine Isabel Archer's future course, after I closed the book.

The tears I took to be the tears any woman would shed even in a normal marriage, though it is probably just the author perversely denying his female protagonists any happiness in life. There's a disagreeable streak in James, and despite his genius he will never be among my favourites.

I did enjoy this book very much though - 7/10