“Fictions”
Vanity Fair
The story opens with Miss Pinkerton's Academy for
Young Ladies, where Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley have just completed their
studies and are preparing to depart for Amelia's house in Russell
Square. Becky is portrayed as a strong-willed and cunning young woman
determined to make her way in society, and Amelia Sedley as a good-natured,
lovable though simple-minded young girl.
At Russell Square, Miss Sharp is introduced to
the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne (to whom Amelia has been
betrothed from a very young age) and to Amelia's brother Joseph Sedley, a
clumsy and vainglorious/boastful but rich civil servant fresh from the East India Company. Hoping to marry Sedley,
Becky entices him, but she fails because of warnings from Captain Osborne,
Sedley's own native shyness, and his embarrassment over some foolish drunken
behaviour of his that Becky had seen.
Becky Sharp says farewell to Sedley's family and
enters the service of the crude and profligate baronet Sir Pitt
Crawley, who has engaged her as a governess to
his daughters. Her behaviour at Sir Pitt's house gains his favour, and after
the premature death of his second wife, he proposes marriage to her. Then he
finds she is already secretly married to his second son, Rawdon Crawley.
Sir Pitt's elder half sister, the spinster Miss
Crawley, is very rich, having inherited her mother's fortune of £70,000. How
she will bequeath her great wealth is a source of constant conflict between the
branches of the Crawley family who vie shamelessly for her affections;
initially her favourite is Sir Pitt's younger son, Captain Rawdon Crawley. For
some time, Becky acts as Miss Crawley's companion, supplanting the loyal Miss
Briggs in an attempt to establish herself in favour before breaking the news of
her elopement with Miss Crawley's nephew. However, the misalliance so enrages
Miss Crawley that she disinherits her nephew in favour of his pompous and
pedantic elder brother, who also bears the name Pitt Crawley. The married
couple constantly attempts to reconcile with Miss Crawley, and she relents a
little, but she will only see her nephew and refuses to change her will. While
Becky Sharp is rising in the world, Amelia's father, John Sedley, is
bankrupted. The Sedleys and Osbornes were once close allies, but the
relationship between the two families disintegrates after the Sedleys are
financially ruined, and the marriage of Amelia and George is forbidden. George
ultimately decides to marry Amelia against his father's will, pressured by his
friend Dobbin, and George is consequently disinherited. While these personal
events take place, the Napoleonic Wars have been ramping up. George
Osborne and William Dobbin are suddenly deployed to Brussels, but
not before an encounter with Becky and Captain Crawley at Brighton. The holiday
is interrupted by orders to march to Brussels. Already, the newly wedded Osborne
is growing tired of Amelia, and he becomes increasingly attracted to Becky who
encourages his advances.
At a ball in Brussels (based on the Duchess of Richmond's famous ball on the
eve of the Battle of Waterloo) George gives Becky a note
inviting her to run away with him. He regrets this shortly afterwards and reconciles
with Amelia, who has been deeply hurt by his attentions towards her former
friend. The morning after their reconciliation, he is sent to Waterloo with
Captain Crawley and Dobbin, leaving Amelia distraught. Becky, on the other
hand, is virtually indifferent to her husband's departure. She tries to console
Amelia, but Amelia responds angrily, disgusted by Becky's flirtatious behaviour
with George and her lack of concern about Captain Crawley. Becky resents this
snub and a rift develops between the two women that lasts for years. Becky is
not very concerned for the outcome of the war, either; should Napoleon win,
she plans to become the mistress of one of his marshals. Meanwhile she makes a
profit selling her carriage and horses at inflated prices to the panicked
Joseph Sedly, seeking to flee the city, where the Belgian population is openly
pro-Napoleonic.
Captain Crawley survives, but George dies in the
battle. Amelia bears him a posthumous
son, who is also named George. She returns to live in genteel poverty with her
parents. Meanwhile, since the death of George, Dobbin, who is young George's
godfather, gradually begins to express his love for the widowed Amelia by small
kindnesses toward her and her son. She is too much in love with George's memory
to return Dobbin's affections. Saddened, he goes to India for many years.
Dobbin's infatuation with Amelia is a theme which unifies the novel and one
which many have compared to Thackeray's unrequited love for a friend's wife (Jane
Brookfield).
Meanwhile, Becky also has a son, also named after
his father, but unlike Amelia, who dotes on and even spoils her child, Becky is
a cold, distant mother. She continues her ascent first in post-war Paris and
then in London where she is patronised by the great Marquis of Steyne, who
covertly subsidises her and introduces her to London society. Her success is
unstoppable despite her humble origins, and she is eventually presented at
court to the Prince Regent himself.
Becky and Rawdon appear to be financially
successful, but their wealth and high standard of living are mostly smoke and
mirrors. Rawdon gambles heavily and earns money as a billiards shark. The book
also suggests he cheats at cards. Becky accepts trinkets and money from her
many admirers and sells some for cash. She also borrows heavily from the people
around her and seldom pays bills. The couple lives mostly on credit, and while
Rawdon seems to be too dim-witted to be aware of the effect of his borrowing on
the people around him, Becky is fully aware that her heavy borrowing and her
failure to pay bills bankrupts at least two innocent people: her servant,
Briggs, whose life savings Becky borrows and fritters away, and her landlord
Raggles, who was formerly a butler to the Crawley family and who invested his
life savings in the townhouse that Becky and Rawdon rent (and fail to pay for).
She also cheats innkeepers, milliners, dressmakers, grocers, and others who do business on credit. She and Rawdon
obtain credit by tricking everyone around them into believing they are
receiving money from others. Sometimes, Becky and Rawdon buy time from their
creditors by suggesting Rawdon received money in Miss Crawley's will or are
being paid a stipend by Sir Pitt. Ultimately Becky is suspected of carrying on
an extramarital affair with the Marquis of Steyne,
apparently encouraged by Rawdon to prostitute herself in exchange for money and
promotion.
At the summit of her success, Becky's pecuniary
relationship with the rich and powerful Marquis of Steyne is discovered after
Rawdon is arrested for debt. Rawdon's brother's wife, Lady Jane, bails him out
and Rawdon surprises Becky and Steyne in a compromising moment. Rawdon leaves
his wife and through the offices of the Marquis of Steyne is made Governor of
Coventry Island to get him out of the way, but Rawdon challenges the elderly
marquis to a duel. Becky, having lost both husband and credibility, is warned
by Steyne to leave the United Kingdom and she wanders the continent. Rawdon and
Becky's son is left in the care of Pitt Crawley and Lady Jane. However,
wherever Becky goes, she is followed by the shadow of the Marquis of Steyne. No
sooner does she establish herself in polite society than someone turns up who
knows her disreputable history and spreads rumours; Steyne himself hounds her
out of Rome. As Amelia's adored son George grows up, his grandfather relents
and takes him from the impoverished Amelia, who knows the rich and bitter old
man will give him a much better start in life than she or her family could ever
manage. After twelve years abroad, both Joseph Sedley and Dobbin return to the
UK. Dobbin professes his unchanged love to Amelia, but although Amelia is
affectionate she tells him she cannot forget the memory of her dead husband.
Dobbin also becomes close to young George, and his kind, firm manner is a good
influence on the spoiled child.
While in England, Dobbin mediates a
reconciliation between Amelia and her father-in-law. The death of Amelia's
father prevents their meeting, but following Osborne's death soon after, it is
revealed that he had amended his will and bequeathed young George half his
large fortune and Amelia a generous annuity. The rest is divided between his
daughters, Miss Osborne, and Mrs. Bullock, who begrudges Amelia and her son the
decrease in her annuity. After the death of old Mr. Osborne, Amelia, Joseph,
George and Dobbin go on a trip to Germany, where they encounter the destitute
Becky. She meets the young George at a card table and then enchants Jos Sedley
all over again. Becky has unfortunately deteriorated as a character. She is
drinking heavily, has lost her singing voice and much of her looks and spends
time with card sharps and con artists. The book suggests that Becky has been
involved in activities even more shady than her usual con games, but does not
go into details. Following Jos's entreaties, Amelia agrees to a reconciliation
when she hears that Becky's ties with her son have been severed, much to
Dobbin's disapproval. Dobbin quarrels with Amelia and finally realizes that he
is wasting his love on a woman too shallow to return it. However, Becky, in a
moment of conscience, shows Amelia the note that Amelia's dead husband, George,
had given her, asking her to run away with him. This destroys Amelia's
idealized image of George, but not before Amelia has sent a note to Dobbin
professing her love. Becky resumes her seduction of Jos and gains control over
him. He eventually dies of a suspicious ailment after signing a portion of his
money to Becky as life insurance. In the original illustrations, which were
done by Thackeray, Becky is shown behind a curtain with a vial in her hand; the
picture is labelled "Becky's second appearance in the character of Clytemnestra"
(she had played Clytemnestra during charades at a party earlier in the book).
Jos' death appears to have made her fortune. By a twist of fate Rawdon dies
weeks before his older brother, whose son has already died; the baronetcy
descends to Rawdon's son. Had he outlived his brother by even a day he would
have become Sir Rawdon Crawley and Becky would have become Lady Crawley, a
title she uses anyway in later life. The reader is informed at the end of the
novel that although Dobbin married Amelia, and although he always treated her
with great kindness, he never fully regained the love that he once had for her.
There is also a final appearance for Becky, as cocky as ever, selling trinkets
at a fair in aid of various charitable causes. She is now living well again, as
her son, the new baronet, has agreed to support her financially (in spite of
her past neglect and indifference towards him); however, he declines any
further relationship or communication.
The Pickwick Papers
Written for publication as a serial, The Pickwick Papers is a
sequence of loosely-related adventures. The action is given as occurring
1827–8, though critics have noted some seeming anachronisms. The novel's main
character, Samuel Pickwick, Esquire, is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, and the founder
and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. To extend his researches into the
quaint and curious phenomena of life, he suggests that he and three other
"Pickwickians" (Mr Nathaniel Winkle, Mr Augustus Snodgrass, and Mr
Tracy Tupman) should make journeys to remote places from London and report on
their findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the
English countryside by coach provide the chief theme of the novel. A
distinctive and valuable feature of the work is the generally accurate
descriptions of the old coaching inns of England.
Its main literary value and appeal is formed by
its numerous memorable characters. Each character in The Pickwick Papers,
as in many other Dickens novels, is drawn comically, often with exaggerated
personalities. Alfred Jingle, who joins the cast in chapter two,
provides an aura of comic villainy. His devious tricks repeatedly land the
Pickwickians in trouble. These include Jingle's nearly-successful attempted
elopement with the spinster Rachael Wardle of Dingley Dell manor, misadventures
with Dr Slammer, and others.
Further humour is provided when the comic cockney
Sam Weller makes his advent in chapter 10 of the novel. First seen working at
the White Hart Inn in The
Borough, Weller is taken on by Mr Pickwick as a personal servant and
companion on his travels and provides his own oblique ongoing narrative on the
proceedings. The relationship between the idealistic and unworldly Pickwick and
the astute cockney
Weller has been likened to that between Don Quixote
and Sancho
Panza.
Other notable adventures include Mr Pickwick's
attempts to defend a lawsuit brought by his landlady, Mrs Bardell, who (through
an apparent misunderstanding on her part) is suing him for the breach
of promise to marry her. Another is Mr Pickwick's incarceration at Fleet
Prison for his stubborn refusal to pay the compensation to her because he
doesn't want to give a penny to Mrs Bardell's lawyers, the unscrupulous firm of
Messrs. Dodson and Fogg. The general humorous tone is here briefly replaced by
biting social satire (including against the legal establishment) and
foreshadows major themes in Dickens' later books. Mr Pickwick, Sam Weller, and
Weller Senior also appear in Dickens's serial, Master Humphrey's Clock.
Under the Greenwood Tree
The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir,
one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school
mistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the
choir—including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William
Dewy—making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little
band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick,
smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's
beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar at the parish
church.
The vicar, Mr. Maybold, informs the choir that he
intends Fancy, an accomplished organ player, to replace their traditional
musical accompaniment to Sunday services. The tranter and the rest of the band
visit the vicar's home to negotiate, but reluctantly give way to the more
modern organ. Meanwhile, Dick seems to win Fancy's heart, and she discovers an
effective strategem to overcome her father's objection to the potential
marriage. After the two are engaged secretly, however, vicar Maybold
impetuously asks Fancy to marry him and lead a life of relative affluence;
racked by guilt and temptation, she accepts. The next day, however, at a chance
meeting with the as-yet-unaware Dick, Maybold withdraws his proposal; and
Fancy, simultaneously, has withdrawn her acceptance.
The novel ends with a humorous portrait of
Reuben, William, Mr. Day, and the rest of the Mellstock rustics as they
celebrate the couple's wedding day. The mood is joyful, but at the end of the
final chapter, the reader is reminded that Fancy has married with "a
secret she would never tell" (her final flirtation and brief engagement to
the vicar). While Under the Greenwood Tree is often seen as Hardy's
gentlest and most pastoral novel, this final touch introduces a faint note of
melancholy to the conclusion.
Wuthering Heights
In 1801, Mr Lockwood, a wealthy man from the
south of England, rents Thrushcross Grange in the north
for peace and recuperation. He visits his landlord, Mr
Heathcliff, who lives in a remote moorland
farmhouse, "Wuthering Heights,"
where he finds an odd assemblage: Heathcliff seems to be a gentleman, but his
manners are uncouth; the reserved mistress of the house is in her mid-teens;
and a young man seems to be a family member yet dresses and speaks like a
servant.
Snowed in, Lockwood is grudgingly allowed to stay
and is shown to a bedchamber where he notices books and graffiti left by a
former inhabitant named Catherine. He falls asleep and has a nightmare in which
he sees the ghostly Catherine trying to enter through the window. He cries out
in fear, rousing Heathcliff who rushes to the room. Lockwood was convinced that
what he saw was real. Heathcliff, believing Lockwood to be right, examines the
window and opens it hoping to allow Catherine's spirit to enter. When nothing
happens, Heathcliff shows Lockwood to his own bedroom and returns to keep watch
at the window.
At sunrise, Heathcliff escorts Lockwood back to
Thrushcross Grange. Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, about the family
at Wuthering Heights, and she tells him the tale.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Part One (Chapters 1 to 15): Gilbert Markham narrates how a
mysterious widow, Mrs. Helen Graham, arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby old
mansion. A source of curiosity for the small community, the reticent Mrs Graham
and her young son Arthur are slowly drawn into the social circles of the
village. Initially, Gilbert Markham casually courts Eliza Millward, despite his
mother's belief that he can do better. His interest in Eliza wanes as he comes
to know Mrs. Graham. In retribution, Eliza spreads (and perhaps creates) scandalous
rumors about Helen.
With gossip flying, Gilbert is led to believe that his friend, Mr. Lawrence,
is courting Mrs. Graham. At a chance meeting in a road, a jealous Gilbert
strikes the mounted Lawrence with a whip handle, causing him to fall from his horse.
THough she is unaware of this confrontation, Helen still refuses to marry
Gilbert, but gives him her diaries when he accuses her of loving Lawrence.
Part two (Chapters 16 to 44) is taken from Helen's diaries and
describes her marriage to Arthur Huntingdon. The handsome, witty Huntingdon is
also spoilt, selfish, and self-indulgent. Before marrying Helen, Arthur
Huntingdon flirts with Annabella and uses this to manipulate Helen and convince
her to marry him. Helen marries him blinded by love and resolves to reform
Arthur with gentle persuasion and good example. Upon the birth of their child,
Huntingdon becomes increasingly jealous of their son (also called Arthur) and
his claims on Helen's attentions and affections.
Huntingdon's pack of dissolute friends frequently engage in drunken revels
at the family's home, Grassdale, oppressing those of finer character. Both men
and women are portrayed as degraded, with Lady Annabella Lowborough shown to be
an unfaithful spouse to her melancholy but devoted husband.
Walter Hargrave, the brother of Helen's friend Milicent Hargrave, vies for
Helen's affections. While not as wild as his peers, Walter is an unwelcome
admirer: Helen senses his predatory nature, something revealed when they play
chess. Walter tells Helen of Arthur's affair with Lady Lowborough. When his
friends depart, Arthur pines openly for his paramour and derides his wife.
Arthur's corruption of their son — encouraging him to drink and swear at his
tender age — is the last straw for Helen. She plans to flee to save her son,
but her husband learns of her plans from her journal, and burns her artist's
tools (by which she had hoped to support herself). Eventually, with help from
her brother, Mr. Lawrence, Helen finds a secret refuge at Wildfell Hall.
Part Three (Chapters 45 to 53) begins after the reading of the
diaries when Helen bids Gilbert to leave her because she is not free to marry.
He complies and soon learns that she has returned to Grassdale upon learning
that Arthur is gravely ill. Helen's ministrations are in vain. Huntingdon's
death is painful, fraught with terror at what awaits him. Helen cannot comfort
him, for he rejects responsibility for his actions and wishes instead for her
to 'come with him', to plead for his salvation.
A year passes. Gilbert pursues a rumour of Helen's impending wedding, only
to find that Mr. Lawrence (with whom he has reconciled) is marrying Helen's
friend, Esther Hargrave. He goes to Grassdale, and discovers that Helen is now
wealthy and lives at her estate in Staningley. He travels there, but is plagued
by worries that she is now far above his station. He hesitates at the
entry-gate. By chance, he encounters Helen, her aunt, and young Arthur. The two
lovers reconcile and marry.
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