First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

filed in Myths and stereotypes

Why Henry James Got it Wrong

May 12, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

There are women who are unmarried by accident, and others who are unmarried by option; but Olive Chancellor was unmarried by every implication of her being. She was a spinster as Shelley was a lyric poet, or as the month of August is sultry.  
                                 from The Bostonians, by Henry James, 1886

In San Francisco, where I lived for 24 years, August is NOT a sultry month. It is brisk when the fog rolls in, and I was as likely to wear a turtleneck sweater for an evening out in August, as I was in January. Which illustrates a point I’ve been wanting to make; just because people say things with great authority, doesn’t make them right, even when it’s one of the great writers, and a favorite of mine, like Henry James.

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