Appendix C - James’s Proposal for The Bostonians

Summary

On 13 April 1883 James wrote to his publisher James R. Osgood with proposals for publishing his fiction over the next two years or so. He began by outlining the plot of The Bostonians. He copied this passage from the letter into his notebook, adding some further comments. This appendix contains the text of the letter (LL 144–6), with selected variants from the notebook copy in square brackets, followed by the supplementary notebook comments. The text of the notebook follows that prepared by Philip Horne for CFHJ 34.

(a) Letter to Osgood

I take a few moments before going out of town to say a few words about the novel I spoke of to you to-day. (Proposal I.)

The scene of the story is laid in Boston & its neighbourhood; it relates an episode connected with the so-called “women's [woman’s] movement.” The characters who figure in it are for the most part persons of the radical & reforming class [type], who are especially interested in the emancipation of woman [women], giving her [them] the suffrage, releasing her [delivering them] from bondage, co-educating her [them] with men &c. They regard this as the great question of the day — the most urgent & sacred reform. The heroine is a very clever & gifted [“gifted”] young woman, associated by birth & circumstances with a circle immersed in these ideas [views] & every sort of new agitation, daughter of old abolitionists, transcendentalists, spiritualists [spiritualists, transcendentalists], &c. She herself takes an interest in the cause; but she is an object of still greater interest to her family & friends, who have discovered in her a remarkable natural talent for public speaking, by which they believe her capable of moving large audiences & rendering great aid in the liberation of her sex. They cherish her as a kind of apostle & redeemer. She is very pleasing to look upon, & her gift for speaking is a kind of inspiration. She has a dear & intimate friend, another young woman who, issuing from a totally different social circle (a rich, conservative, exclusive family) has thrown herself into these questions with intense ardour, & has conceived a passionate admiration for our young girl, over whom, by the force of a completely different character, she has acquired a great influence.