Olive Chancellor

fictional character

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Article History

Olive Chancellor, fictional character, a feminist social reformer in The Bostonians (1886) by Henry James. Chancellor, a woman of discrimination, taste, and intelligence, gets caught up in the cause of woman suffrage and is subsequently consumed by her desire for political change. She is much taken with Verena Tarrant, a beautiful and spellbinding orator whom she attempts to enlist in the cause of women’s rights and who becomes her protégé. Her archrival for the soul of Verena is her own cousin, Basil Ransom, a quintessential Southern gentleman who desires nothing more than a beautiful wife and a mother for his children.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.