Searching for Sentimentality in Henry James’s The Bostonians

Abstract

This article sees The Bostonians not as an expression of James’s mastery over sentimentality but a meditation on its power. James’s narrative technique of shifting focalization fails to provide the evaluation of Verena Tarrant, the sentimental orator at the novel’s center, that the reader desires. James’s refusal of mastery over this sentimental object opens up a new way to position James in relation to sentimentality and provides us with an alternative to prevailing critical methods of reading sentimental fiction.