I read The Bostonians coming fresh off of reading Cloud Cuckoo Land and I am a bit astonished at the contrast. The latter is a contemporary novel with an obvious underlying ethos which I am predominantly in line with, but feels flat and a bit lifeless. The Bostonians has the two strikes against it of being both old (as in of-a-time-that-is-difficult-to-inhabit) and spending its time making the repugnant argument that women are less then men. And yet - its characters are alive, are real people with great depth. I immediately fell into and was consumed by the story. And yeah, at the end, there is a kinda Atlas Shrugged-type ending where the unabashed misogonyst persuades the impressionable young woman to leave her life for him. And along the way there are a lot of confused arguments that are mostly nonsense now. I’m not really sure how it stood up in the context of its time, I am inclined to believe that James meant it to appeal to both “sides of the woman question” whatever that means. I mean all in all, it was more sympathetic to lesbians than you expect from a 19th century writer? Politics aside, it beats out Atlas Shrugged in at least being an admirable work of art.