The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 10 (of 36): Louisa Pallant; The Bostonians (Throne Classics)

Henry, James

Throne Classics

The Bostonians is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Century Magazine in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. This bittersweet tragicomedy centres on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin and a Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty, young protégée of Olive's in the feminist movement. The storyline concerns the struggle between Ransom and Olive for Verena's allegiance and affection, though the novel also includes a wide panorama of political activists, newspaper people, and quirky eccentrics. Mississippi lawyer and Civil War veteran, Basil Ransom, visits his cousin Olive Chancellor in Boston. She takes him to a political meeting where Verena Tarrant delivers a feminist speech. Ransom, a strong conservative, is annoyed by the speech but fascinated with the speaker. Olive, who has never before set eyes on Verena, is equally fascinated. She persuades Verena to leave her parents' house, move in with her and study in preparation for a career in the feminist movement. Meanwhile, Ransom returns to his law practice in New York, which is not doing well. He visits Boston again and walks with Verena through the Harvard College grounds, including the impressive Civil War Memorial Hall. Verena finds herself attracted to the charismatic Ransom. Basil eventually proposes to Verena, much to Olive's dismay. Olive has arranged for Verena to speak at the Boston Music Hall. Ransom shows up at the hall just before Verena is scheduled to begin her speech. He persuades Verena to elope with him, to the discomfiture of Olive and her fellow-feminists. The final sentence of the novel shows Verena in tears - not to be her last, James assures us.

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 19 (of 36): The Letters of Henry James (volume II); Notes of a Son and Brother (Throne Classics)

Notes of a Son and Brother is an autobiography by Henry James published in 1914. The book covers James' early manhood and tells of "the obscure hurt" that kept him out of the Civil War, his first efforts at writing fiction, and the early death of his beloved cousin, Minny Temple, from tuberculosis. In this second installment of his autobiography James begins to use family letters, especially those of his brother William and his father Henry James, Sr. Scholarship has shown that James altered the letters with revisions of his own. The book covers the Civil War years, which saw James' younger brother Wilky seriously injured and brought back to the family home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. James himself was exempted from service due to a back injury, the "obscure hurt" he suffered while putting out a fire with the local volunteer fire department. Meanwhile, James pursued his writing and earned his first fourteen dollars, which he looked at long and proudly. He began to place critical pieces and short stories in magazines like the North American Review, The Nation and The Atlantic Monthly. James' older brother William vacillated between art and science but finally settled on the latter, though many years would pass before he became the philosopher and psychologist of enduring fame. James offers a vivid portrait of his sometimes whimsical father, who insisted that his children "be something" instead of going in for "mere doing." The final chapter of the book covers the ill health and death (at 25) of James' spirited and appealing cousin, Minny Temple. James quotes extensively from her touching letters and says that, for himself and William, her death was "the end of our youth."

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 21 (of 36): The Pension Beaurepas; A Bundle of Letters (Throne Classics)

"A Bundle of Letters" is a comic short story by Henry James, originally published in The Parisian magazine in 1879, which is also when the story takes place. The story is one of James' few ventures into epistolary fiction. As he did so often, especially in the early stages of his career, James made the tale part of his international theme: his letter-writers represent a number of different countries. Although some of the characters look like well-worn stereotypes - the wolfish Frenchman, the pedantic and aggressively nationalistic German, the snobbish upper-class English siblings - James manages to endow most of them with enough twists and turns of personality to interest the reader. One character has even been taken as a sly satire on himself. Several residents of a Paris boarding-house write letters to their friends and family back home; their primary subject is their reaction to each other. The main character is Miranda Hope, an angular but likeable Yankee Miss from Bangor, Maine who, quite bravely for a young woman of that era, is traveling in Europe alone. In her letters, she chatters to her mother about seeing the sights in Europe but doesn't like the Old World's treatment of its women, "and that is a point, you know, on which I feel very strongly." Her expressions of petulance with William Platt, who we realize must have been a suitor of hers back in Maine, are so offhand as to be amusing. Although she is in general the least affected and most sympathetic character in the story, her unawareness of the disdain in which most of the characters hold each other (including herself) makes her seem somewhat naive. Meanwhile, society girl Violet Ray of New York writes to a friend that Miranda, who she sees as provincial, is "really too horrible." Another boarder, wannabe aesthete Louis Leverett (quite possibly a self-satire by James) gushes in his letter that "the great thing is to live, you know," amid much precious verbiage about the good, the true and the bee-a-u-tiful. An English boarder, Evelyn Vane, pens a scoffing note that Louis is always talking about the color of the sky, but she doubts if he's ever seen it except through a window-pane; and the German sees Leverett's "decadence" as further evidence that the English-speaking world is weak and ripe for takeover. The Frenchman Leon Verdier almost drools in his letter about the charms of ces demoiselles among the boarders, and focuses primarily on their appearance. The rather threatening German professor is the only character both cynical and intelligent enough to realize how disdainful all the English speakers are of each other. However, he's also the least sympathetic character in the story. (James disliked Germany and its culture.) While the other characters despise each other mostly on personal grounds, or from cultural misunderstanding, Herr Professor despises them all based on their national traits and general sub-human status (he calls the Frenchman "simian"). In a letter to his German friend, he simultaneously brags of his erudition and predicts that the weakness of these other nationalities augurs a bright future "for the deep-lunged children of the Fatherland!"

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 26 (of 36): Pandora; Sir Dominick Ferrand (Throne Classics)

Plays (Throne Classics)

LEO TOLSTOY

The Black Robe (Throne Classics)

Wilkie, Collins

A Rogue's Life (Prince Classics)

Scion of a well-connected but impoverished family, Frank Softly may be the most audacious, outrageous, engaging, and thoroughly lovestruck young man in Regency London. By the age of 25, he's been in and out of doctoring, caricaturing, forging Old Masters, and counterfeiting half-crowns. Now a maliciously conceived will ties the loveable rascal's fortunes to those of his doddering grandmother and miserly brother-in-law. The ensuing scheme brings Frank up against a worthy adversary, the sinister Dr. Dulcifer, a conductor of secret experiments who also happens to be the father of a highly attractive young woman.
Ranging from the British Isles to Australia, Frank's picaresque adventures enable Wilkie Collins to take a good-natured poke at a host of ready targets, including pretentious art collectors, puritanical English society, and stuffy self-improvement groups. Written with a light touch and charming sense of humor, A Rogue's Life offers a delightful diversion.

A Rogue's Life (Throne Classics)

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Books by Throne Classics

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Throne Classics publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 10 (of 36): Louisa Pallant; The Bostonians (Throne Classics)

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 10 (of 36): Louisa Pallant; The Bostonians (Throne Classics)

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 19 (of 36): The Letters of Henry James (volume II); Notes of a Son and Brother (Throne Classics)

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 19 (of 36): The Letters of Henry James (volume II); Notes of a Son and Brother (Throne Classics)

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 21 (of 36): The Pension Beaurepas; A Bundle of Letters (Throne Classics)

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 21 (of 36): The Pension Beaurepas; A Bundle of Letters (Throne Classics)

The Collected Works of Henry James, Vol. 26 (of 36): Pandora; Sir Dominick Ferrand (Throne Classics)

Plays (Throne Classics)

The Black Robe (Throne Classics)

A Rogue's Life (Throne Classics)