Public Programs & Events

The Nichols House Museum and Gibson House Museum are excited to announce a new book club! Inspired by the literary salons once hosted in the Nichols House Museum and Gibson House Museum parlors, our Read the Room book club welcomes both those new to the museums and our familiar friends.

The book club will meet twice a season for group discussion followed by a tour of the host museum. Participants can expect to read a mix of Victorian-era and contemporary fiction (and even the occasional volume of poetry), and each month’s book selection will reflect some aspect or theme of the respective museum.

Participants will be given a list of discussion questions the week prior to the event, and each event will highlight particular objects or spaces at the host museum that connect to the book. Programs will take place virtually this fall; participants will be invited to meet on-site when it becomes safe to do so. 

We’re thrilled to offer a very special joint membership in conjunction with the book club: join both museums for $60 (a savings of $35) and receive free access to the book club as well as member benefits at both museums! Use the registration button to join today and RSVP to this event.

The Bostonians by Henry James at the Gibson House Museum

Location: Virtual, hosted by the Gibson House Museum, home of writer Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr.
Host: Meghan Gelardi Holmes, Curator, Gibson House Museum

Book summary from Penguin Random House:

This brilliant satire of the women’s rights movement in America is the story of the ravishing inspirational speaker Verena Tarrant and the bitter struggle between two distant cousins who seek to control her. Will the privileged Boston feminist Olive Chancellor succeed in turning her beloved ward into a celebrated activist and lifetime companion? Or will Basil Ransom, a conservative southern lawyer, steal Verena’s heart and remove her from the limelight? The Bostonians is one of James’s most provocative and astute portrayals of a world caught between old values and the lure of progress.

Discussion will focus on the changing social world of Boston’s elites at the end of the nineteenth century. We will also consider early feminism and the “Boston marriage.” And, of course, we will talk about material culture, both in the book and at the Gibson House.

The Gibson House was featured in the 1984 film version of the book, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Reeve, which the New York Times called “a rare delight, a high comedy with tragic undertones.” (And we won’t tell if you just watch the movie and come to book club anyway!)

Purchase The Bostonians through your local bookstore or online through the local-bookstore network, Bookshop. An ebook version is free through Project Gutenberg.