"As devastating in its wit as it is sharp in its social critique of sexual politics. No writer in America has dared the subject before. No one has done it so well since."--The New Republic Described by the esteemed literary scholar Terry Castle as the first "lesbian novel" written in English--that is, "the first nonpornographic work in Anglo-American literature to engage fully and self-consciously with the love-between-women theme"--The Bostonians hinges on a rivalry between two distant cousins, a man and a woman, for the love of a beautiful, curiously passive girl named Verena Tarrant, an inspirational speaker whose parents are trying to launch her on the lecture and social circuit during the 1870s. As with all titles in the new Magnus Editions series, The Bostonians includes an overview of the author's work with special attention paid to its queer dimensions, as well as a reading group guide that similarly places emphasis on the sexual politics behind the writing. One of the most celebrated American novelists, Henry James is the author of The Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw, among other classics.