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Wed | December 21, 2005

Bostonians

I finished Bostonians last night. I think this must have been Henry James's green period. The main characters are named Olive, Basil, and Verena. I am not sure what their last names- Chancellor, Ransom, and Tarrant- might be meant to evoke.

There wasn't a false step in Bostonians, but I thought it lacked the psychological perspicacity of Portrait of a Lady and Washington Square. The palpation of people's minds. It's also possible, however, that I just didn't get it.

One of the things I admire about James is that he writes endings that make sense, whereas many other novelists drop the ball at the end. James is never afraid to say people lived unhappily ever after.

Again it's about love- this time, about the person in love (Olive) unable to compromise or give up (Verena), and the natural consequence of that (Verena, suffocated, finds freedom by escaping to Basil, who is, in the final sentence, acknowledged as not that great either). It's about letting go in relationships, and about trust and freedom. About how holding someone closer only makes them leave, in the end. And about confidence, really, which is what I meant by trust. If Olive had had confidence in her relationship with Verena then they would never have fallen apart.

There is a sense of inevitability in these novels-- set up the characters and play out their destinies. There is also a sense that things are mutually exclusive. Like in "Lesson of the Master," the feeling that one can have a life, or be a writer. And in Bostonians, Verena can be an activist, or get married. There is a sense that she could not do both, that one must be sacrificed for the other.

The novel has an intelligent side character in Mrs. Burrage.

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