The Bostonians from Novel into Film

Year 2014, Issue: 40, 37 - 54, 01.10.2014

Dorota Babilas

Abstract

Henry James’s novel The Bostonians presents an emotional and political struggle between a traditionalist Southerner, Basil Ransom, and his Boston-based feminist cousin, Olive Chancellor, for influence over a debutante public speaker, Verena Tarrant. Two film adaptations of The Bostonians have been made: the heritage style costume drama directed by James Ivory in 1984, and the modern reworking titled The Californians 2005, dir. Jonathan Parker . The adaptations shift the perception of emotional attachment between Olive and Verena from late-Victorian romantic friendship to thinly veiled lesbianism. Ivory’s film uses the plot of James’s novel to relate to the problems of the late twentieth century, especially the issue of the conservative backlash in the 1980s. Parker’s version shifts the focus of the narrative from women’s rights to environmentalism

Keywords

Henry James, The Bostonians, film adaptation, feminism, lesbianism

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