
Brandeis’ Annual Novel Symposium
On Friday, Oct. 17, the Brandeis English Department held its annual Novel Symposium. This year’s event focused on the novel “The Bostonians” by Henry James, and it featured a series of three panels consisting of both graduate students and professors. “The Bostonians” is a novel written by Henry James in 1886. The novel is set in post-Civil War America and follows three main characters: Basil, a conservative southerner who lives in New York; Olive, his feminist Bostonian cousin; and Verena, Olive’s protege and Basil’s love interest. Throughout the story, Olive and Basil are constantly at war for Verena’s attention. Basil stands in opposition to both women’s morals and philosophy, believing that women should stay in the house. Olive sees Verena as the future of the feminist movement, and the women






