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.