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The Bostonians
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Plot Summary of The Bostonians
"This is one book of Henry james' that has been slighted. It is a study of the conflict between a male and female cousin over the place of first standing in a mutual woman's affections. The female wants to use her for her social drive toward women's equal political/legal rights - the male wants her for his wife in an old-fashioned marriage. The male wins. A fantastic book."
Kelly Whiting, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Bostonians
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of story - 19th century
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - seduction (yum!)
Political/social activism Yes
Plotlet: - general liberal/left wing activism - women fighting for rights
Family, struggle with Yes
Struggle with: - Cousin
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Ethnic/regional/gender life Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - unemployed
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - a lawyer creature
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 2 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - wealthy

Style
Person - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Amount of dialog - mostly dialog
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Henry James Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Jack Goodstein  

SCHOLARS:
Cindy Dashnaw  Danielle Taylor  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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