New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-03-28
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MR.. JAMES'S NEW BOOK.

MIR. JAMFS'S NEW BOOK.
THE ROsrONIANS. 4 Novel ny hENRi JAMES
Crown -vO PP.4i9 Macmillan a GO
sThc Bostonians" is ponderous. To the best OIL
opr recollection no = nrk by Mr. James can compare
with !, in monotonous and oppressive soldty. Inc
humorous portions themselves and the patches oI
humor are numcrouS-have not an eNhilara'lhH
effect: and the book can only DC defined as Hlsuh'I
Mr. James has chosen disagTec"be SUBJECT ana
developed il at inOrdinate length, with hardly al
atten,pt 10 relieve the prevailing lowness OF tone
by contrasting episodes, and with less th"h MS
usnal felicity in tho description oil ch"ra''er ''"
tho ar,lvsjs Of motives The pcrsonages to whom
he nrescnts US are a group of female emancIpatorS
institutional speakers, magnetic Dealers, aud mis-
celianeous lecture-room roiOrmers, and there are
flashes of ey cellen satire in the sketches oil their
talk and manners; but we have So much of their
company and so little Of anything else we are
asked TO enter so often into their states oil MIMI
and TO busy ourselves so much with thcT
crudencss vulgarity and weakness. that they
become ineNpressibly tiresomc. Long before we
are half through the book we feel as II we had neeh
shut up for a whole evening with party OF very
volubc progressive thinkers in a third-rate board
ing-house. 1t was a great blunder quite to MI
novel with dis1grceable persons and unpleasant
incidents There is nobody in The BOstonians
with whom it is possible to feel spark OF sym
rathy nobody from whose counterpart in real lie
we would not flee as from a stuqendous bore
From this comprehensive condemnation we GER
tainly do not except the heroine. Verona Iarraht'
who has been trained by an odious Eumhug' her
father to poso as a public rhapsodlst' ana Fet
possesses a fresh gIIli,h charm, generosity an"
frankness is an impossible suppoSitoh 10 DeH,i
with. and Mr. James does not make her plausible
by his exceedingly minute statement OF hef
feelings Mr. Iowcils treated similar idea IN one
of The very bost of his novels, " An Undiscovered
Countrv and ne did il with far more Skill and lar
more poctical feeling than Nh James EXHIBITS III
this over-wrought bnt under-done study. we
hardly know how Mr.. James understands MS
hrroiLe but she appears to the outside WolIl is
girl of shallow nature and weak WILL WHO Is
always under somebody's control whose perccp-
,ions are not acute and whose ideals are neither
birh nor refined. yet who takes desperate rcSoIu-
tion in the last scene OF which only strong char
octer would hive been capable We are told that
She was fascinating; but none of her actions are
attractive and her talk Is the iargOn OF puOHc
performer with a gift" Her connection with
Olive Challoncr who believes in the girls destiny
as prophecies of the great cause OF woman
rights Iavishes upon her passionate affection, and
makes il her own mission to keep her from
drbasing and diStracting associations, mas IN i'he
elements of a tragedy, which indeed Is lmperiecty
outl,ned in the last chapter Miss Challoner is by
far the strongest parsonage IN the story. But I'M
fortunately Miss Challoner is also the most
rcnulsive Her grim fauatcisn almost passes the
bounds of sanity tie 1ahos of her struggle to keep
Nerena and her cruel defeat, s spoiled by our
constant consciousness that Miss ChallOner was an
appalling nuisance. All her traits except her
savage devotion to a mistaken idea, are un!ovey.
When she appears among The Bostonans the
termination 10 skip becomes almost irresistible.
If Mr. James had desired to dlscredit his own
theory of the novel. to convince us that the con
struction of a story is worth while after all, and
that the dissection Of morbid conscicnccs and the
description Of common and unpleasant persons and
things are not the highest aims OF art he could
have contrived no better argument than the pub
LEGATION of @The Bostonans' We have sand
enough TO show that his principal characters are
not worth much pains; the subordinate actors
including the hero are of slight consequence and
are slightly treated. As fol the story, that does
not move at all until about the four-hundIedth
pope Then Mr James hurries things TO an end,
ne he generally does hen lie is tired of his work
In this case however he winds up with violent
and sensational scene which has not been justified
beforehand by anything in the course of events or
in the DEVELOPMENT Of the characters. If he had
traced the expansion of Nercnas higher instincts
and the STRENGTHENING of her moral fibre under the
influence of an exaltng love, then some such Incl
dent az he describes at the Music Hall, though
wildly improbable would still have seemed a
conceivable result OF the growth OF her nature
But he has attempted nothing of that kind nor
indeed is Ransom a stronger spirit than Verona
herself