The Bostonians

When Chris and I were deciding where we wanted to spend our honeymoon, we, almost immediately, settled on Boston. We both love history, and Boston is replete with it. I chose The Bostonians, by Henry James, based, in large part, for its title and setting. While it was the title that originally drew me to the book, it was the plot that kept my attention.

The Bostonians centers around the young, beautiful, and rhetorically gifted Verena Tarrant. Her chosen oratorical subject - women's rights. Though many who hear her first speech are enchanted, there are none more so than cousins Olive Chancellor and Basil Ransom.

Born and bread a true Bostonian, Olive is a young, single woman who chosen the Suffragette cause as her mate in life. The moment she hears Verena's clear, ringing voice, she decides that she must recruit the young woman for the purposes of grooming her to ultimately be the driving force of the movement.

Olive's cousin Basil, conversely, was raised to be a Southern gentleman and is conservative to the core. An ex-Confederate soldier from Mississippi, he believes that, "the use of a truly amiable woman is to make some honest man happy," and, to the horror of Olive, falls in love with Verena and begins his own campaign to save her from "the most damnable feminisation" by making her his wife.

The tug-of-war that ensues for Verena's soul between Olive and Basil is relentless and ruthless. As Olive seeks to secure Verena as her movement's face and future, Basil aggressively pursues Verena and challenges her entire belief system. James, however, exposes both Olive and Basil as extreme and inconsistent. Olive believes in rights for women based on the grounds that all people deserve equal rights, but has a general hatred of men and believes the world would be better without them. Basil, on the other hand, says he holds women in the highest of esteem. By this, though, he only means when it comes to the home. It is his firm belief that they have no business being in the public square because of their inferiority as a sex.

As I read The Bostonians, I was struck by Henry James' portrayal of the characters and their individual belief systems. As I woman, I definitely sympathized with Olive and her quest to gain a voice and vote for women in a time when they had none. Though I disagreed with Basil's view on the aptitude and intelligence of women, I identified with Basil as he fought to keep the masculinity of men intact.

Undeniably, the theme that moved me most in The Bostonians was that of belief. As the story unfolds and we see the beliefs of each character (great and small), you can't help but feel the point that James was trying to make - why do we believe what we believe? Do we, like Olive, believe in a cause for the sake of being right? Or do we, like Basil, believe in something because we were raised that way? In one of his attempts to get Verena to abandon her beliefs Basil says (regarding her beliefs):

"They were imposed on you by circumstances, by unfortunate associations, and you accepted them as you would have accepted any other burden . . .You always want to please some one, and now you go lecturing about the county, and trying to provoke demonstrations, in order to please Miss Chancellor [Olive], just as you did it before to please your father and mother. It isn't you . . ."

Ironically, Basil's words could have just as easily been applied to any other character in the book, including himself. Henry James skillfully challenges the reader with this paragraph to question why they believe what they believe.

For Christians, this is a just and right question. Peter challenges Christians as well:

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15)

As important as an earthly cause may be (and there are some important ones), there is no greater cause than that of the gospel. Unlike Olive, Basil, and Verena, as Christians, we can give an answer to why believe - and we should! We believe because the gospel has come from God to man through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus!

Thus, I encourage you to read The Bostonians and be challenged by it. James surely tackles social issues with surprising accuracy for its time, but its message really transcends the situation portrayed in the book. Barnes & Noble Classics publishes a great version of The Bostonians (which I used) and Kindle users rejoice - their version is FREE (though you have to download Volumes I & II separately)!

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