The provided excerpts offer a detailed look into Henry James’s novel, The Bostonians, blending biographical context with passages and critical notes from the text. The biographical material highlights key moments in James’s life, such as his return to England and his eventual death, while also noting his feelings about his family's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The bulk of the text focuses on the novel’s plot, particularly the antagonistic relationship between the Southern conservative, Basil Ransom, and the zealous Boston feminist, Olive Chancellor, over the magnetic public speaker, Verena Tarrant. Annotations explain references to historical figures, social movements like spiritualism and abolitionism, and the political and social atmosphere of late nineteenth-century Boston and New York, emphasizing the novel’s satirical critique of radical reform and gender roles.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.