A History of Pendennis. Volume 1. His fortunes and misfortunes, his friends and his greatest enemy

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Thackeray William Makepeace. A History of Pendennis. Volume 1. His fortunes and misfortunes, his friends and his greatest enemy

TO DR. JOHN ELLIOTSON

PREFACE

PENDENNIS. CHAPTER I. SHOWS HOW FIRST LOVE MAY INTERRUPT BREAKFAST

CHAPTER II. A PEDIGREE AND OTHER FAMILY MATTERS

CHAPTER III. IN WHICH PENDENNIS APPEARS AS A VERY YOUNG MAN INDEED

CHAPTER IV. MRS. HALLER

CHAPTER V. MRS. HALLER AT HOME

CHAPTER VI. CONTAINS BOTH LOVE AND WAR

CHAPTER VII. IN WHICH THE MAJOR MAKES HIS APPEARANCE

CHAPTER VIII. IN WHICH PEN IS KEPT WAITING AT THE DOOR, WHILE THE READER IS INFORMED WHO LITTLE LAURA WAS

CHAPTER IX. IN WHICH THE MAJOR OPENS THE CAMPAIGN

CHAPTER X. FACING THE ENEMY

CHAPTER XI. NEGOTIATION

CHAPTER XII. IN WHICH A SHOOTING MATCH IS PROPOSED

CHAPTER XIII. A CRISIS

CHAPTER XIV. IN WHICH MISS FOTHERINGAY MAKES A NEW ENGAGEMENT

CHAPTER XV. THE HAPPY VILLAGE

CHAPTER XVI. MORE STORMS IN THE PUDDLE

CHAPTER XVII. WHICH CONCLUDES THE FIRST PART OF THIS HISTORY

CHAPTER XVIII. ALMA MATER

CHAPTER XIX. PENDENNIS OF BONIFACE

CHAPTER XX. RAKE'S PROGRESS

CHAPTER XXI. FLIGHT AFTER DEFEAT

CHAPTER XXII. PRODIGAL'S RETURN

CHAPTER XXIII. NEW FACES

CHAPTER XXIV. A LITTLE INNOCENT

CHAPTER XXV. CONTAINS BOTH LOVE AND JEALOUSY

CHAPTER XXVI. A HOUSE FULL OF VISITORS

CHAPTER XXVII. CONTAINS SOME BALL-PRACTICING

CHAPTER XXVIII. WHICH IS BOTH QUARRELSOME AND SENTIMENTAL

CHAPTER XXIX. BABYLON

CHAPTER XXX. THE KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE

CHAPTER XXXI. OLD AND NEW ACQUAINTANCES

CHAPTER XXXII. IN WHICH THE PRINTER'S DEVIL COMES TO THE DOOR

CHAPTER XXXIII. WHICH IS PASSED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF LUDGATE HILL

CHAPTER XXXIV. IN WHICH THE HISTORY STILL HOVERS ABOUT FLEET-STREET

CHAPTER XXXV. A DINNER IN THE ROW

CHAPTER XXXVI. THE PALL-MALL GAZETTE

CHAPTER XXXVII. WHERE PEN APPEARS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY

CHAPTER XXXVIII. IN WHICH THE SYLPH REAPPEARS

CHAPTER XXXIX. IN WHICH COLONEL ALTAMONT APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS

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If this kind of composition, of which the two years' product is now laid before the public, fail in art, as it constantly does and must, it at least has the advantage of a certain truth and honesty, which a work more elaborate might lose. In his constant communication with the reader, the writer is forced into frankness of expression, and to speak out his own mind and feelings as they urge him. Many a slip of the pen and the printer, many a word spoken in haste, he sees and would recall as he looks over his volume. It is a sort of confidential talk between writer and reader, which must often be dull, must often flag. In the course of his volubility, the perpetual speaker must of necessity lay bare his own weaknesses, vanities, peculiarities. And as we judge of a man's character, after long frequenting his society, not by one speech, or by one mood or opinion, or by one day's talk, but by the tenor of his general bearing and conversation; so of a writer, who delivers himself up to you perforce unreservedly, you say, Is he honest? Does he tell the truth in the main? Does he seem actuated by a desire to find out and speak it? Is he a quack, who shams sentiment, or mouths for effect? Does he seek popularity by clap-traps or other arts? I can no more ignore good fortune than any other chance which has befallen me. I have found many thousands more readers than I ever looked for. I have no right to say to these, You shall not find fault with my Art, or fall asleep over my pages; but I ask you to believe that this person writing strives to tell the truth. If there is not that, there is nothing.

Perhaps the lovers of "excitement" may care to know, that this book began with a very precise plan, which was entirely put aside. Ladies and gentlemen, you were to have been treated, and the writer's and the publishers' pocket benefited, by the recital of the most active horrors. What more exciting than a ruffian (with many admirable virtues) in St. Giles's, visited constantly by a young lady from Belgravia? What more stirring than the contrasts of society? the mixture of slang and fashionable language? the escapes, the battles, the murders? Nay, up to nine o'clock this very morning, my poor friend, Colonel Altamont, was doomed to execution, and the author only relented when his victim was actually at the window.

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As the chaise drove through Clavering, the hostler standing whistling under the archway of the Clavering Arms, winked the postillion ominously, as much as to say all was over. The gardener's wife came and opened the lodge-gates, and let the travelers through, with a silent shake of the head. All the blinds were down at Fairoaks – the face of the old footman was as blank when he let them in. Arthur's face was white too, with terror more than with grief. Whatever of warmth and love the deceased man might have had, and he adored his wife and loved and admired his son with all his heart, he had shut them up within himself; nor had the boy been ever able to penetrate that frigid outward harrier. But Arthur had been his father's pride and glory through life, and his name the last which John Pendennis had tried to articulate while he lay with his wife's hand clasping his own cold and clammy palm, as the flickering spirit went out into the darkness of death, and life and the world passed away from him.

The little girl, whose face had peered for a moment under the blinds as the chaise came up, opened the door from the stairs into the hall, and taking Arthur's hand silently as he stooped down to kiss her, led him up-stairs to his mother. Old John opened the drawing-room door for the major. The room was darkened, with the blinds down, and surrounded by all the gloomy pictures of the Pendennises. He drank a glass of wine. The bottle had been opened for the squire four days before. His hat was brushed, and laid on the hall table: his newspapers, and his letter bag, with John Pendennis, Esquire, Fairoaks, engraved upon the brass plate, were there in waiting. The doctor and the lawyer from Clavering, who had seen the chaise pass through, came up in a gig half an hour after the major's arrival, and entered by the back door. The former gave a detailed account of the seizure and demise of Mr. Pendennis, enlarged on his virtues and the estimation in which the neighborhood held him; on what a loss he would be to the magistrates' bench, the county hospital, &c. Mrs. Pendennis bore up wonderfully, he said, especially since Master Arthur's arrival. The lawyer staid and dined with Major Pendennis, and they talked business all the evening. The major was his brother's executor, and joint guardian to the boy with Mrs. Pendennis. Every thing was left unreservedly to her, except in case of a second marriage – an occasion which might offer itself in the case of so young and handsome a woman, Mr. Tatham gallantly said, when different provisions were enacted by the deceased. The major would of course take entire superintendence of every thing under this most impressive and melancholy occasion. Aware of this authority, Old John the footman, when he brought Major Pendennis the candle to go to bed, followed afterward with the plate-basket; and the next morning brought him the key of the hall clock – the squire always used to wind it up of a Thursday, John said. Mrs. Pendennis's maid brought him messages from her mistress. She confirmed the doctor's report, of the comfort which Master Arthur's arrival had caused to his mother.

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