Classics, Massachusetts--Boston, Feminists, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Young women, New York (State)--New York, Cousins, Manners and customs, Psychological fiction 

From Boston's social underworld emerges Verena Tarrant, a girl with extraordinary oratorical gifts, which she deploys in tawdry meeting-houses on behalf of 'the sisterhood of women.' She acquires two admirers of a very different stamp: Olive Chancellor, devotee of radical causes, and marked out for tragedy; and Basil Ransom, veteran of the Civil War, with rigid views concerning society and women's place therein. Is the lovely, lighthearted Verena made for public movements or private passions? A struggle to possess her, body and soul, develops between Olive and Basil. The exploitation of Verena's unregenerate innocence reflects a society whose moral and cultural values are failing to survive the new dawn of liberalism and democracy. The Bostonians (1886) was not welcomed by James's fellow countrymen, who failed to appreciate its delicacy and wit; but a century later, this book is widely regarded as James's finest American fiction, and perhaps his comic masterpiece. 

Genre/Form: Classic fiction
Fiction
Psychological fiction
Historical fiction
Material Type: Fiction
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Henry James
ISBN: 9780307291929 0307291928
OCLC Number: 1016873876
Notes: "Originally published in 1886"--Fantastic fiction website.
Includes Chronology.
Description: x, 394 pages ; 21 cm
Responsibility: Henry James.