📖 About This Book · Ovington's Bank - by Stanley J. Weyman
First published in London in 1922 by John Murray
Setting: Aldersbury, 1825 – the speculative mania before the financial panic.
Key Themes: class and social mobility · financial speculation · integrity vs. ambition · love and sacrifice.
Major Characters: Arthur Bourdillon (ambitious, charming) · Clement Ovington (honest, nature-loving) · Josina Griffin (the Squire's daughter) · Squire Griffin (proud, blind) · Charles Ovington (self-made banker) · Rodd (loyal cashier).
Plot Arc: The novel follows the rise and fall of a speculative bank, interwoven with a romantic plot. Arthur's ambition leads him to fraud; Clement's honesty redeems him; the Squire's pride is humbled; love triumphs over prejudice.
Summary
- In the month following his intervention at the bank, the Squire recovers his vigor and resumes his old authority. He gives orders sharply and tramps his fields again, but inwardly he is fighting a battle—his pride and prejudices against his love for Josina.
- He repeatedly tells himself he will not consent to her marriage with Clement. He fears the scorn of his peers—Woosenham, Chirbury, Uvedale, Cludde, and even Acherley. The thought of Garth passing into the hands of a banker's son is intolerable.
- Josina does not press him or complain. Her silence and her quiet devotion weigh on him more than any plea would have done.
- Miss Peacock mentions that Josina has been "looking peaky." The Squire, fearing for her health, begins to consider the possibility of surrender. If she ails, there is no one else to carry on the Griffin line—except Arthur, whom he will never forgive.
- Two months later, the Squire and Fewtrell see Clement in a field of turnips. Fewtrell recalls conversations with Clement about agriculture.
- Clement arrives at Garth with the money—£10,000 principal and interest. The Squire questions him about his ancestry and then gives his grudging consent.
- He tells Clement he may go to Josina, but warns him that he must wait—and that he can never be worthy of her. Clement leaves, and Josina finds the Squire alone. She embraces him, swearing she will never forget what he has done. The Squire, though moved, insists he promises nothing yet—"In a year, maybe, I'll talk about it."
Analysis
- The Squire's inner war: The chapter reveals the Squire's private struggle between his inherited prejudices and his love for his daughter. His repeated "I wun't do it!" is a mantra of resistance, but his actions—his concern for Josina's health, his grudging questions about Clement's ancestry—betray his softening. Pride and love are at war, and love is winning.
- The weight of class: The Squire's fear of his peers' judgment is almost as powerful as his pride. He imagines Acherley's scorn, Woosenham's raised eyebrows, the laughter of the county. His class consciousness is so ingrained that even his love for Josina must contend with the imagined opinions of others.
- Josina's quiet strength: Josina does not plead or manipulate. Her silence—her "peakiness"—is more effective than any argument. The Squire sees her fading and knows that if she fails, the Griffin line fails with her. Her quiet devotion is a form of moral authority.
- The questioning of ancestry: The Squire's interrogation of Clement about his grandfathers reveals the depth of his class prejudice. Yet he finds, in Clement's yeoman ancestry, enough to satisfy him. He is burying "things as have been much to me all my life"—his pride, his traditions, his prejudices. The sacrifice is real.
- Clement's dignity: Clement does not plead or boast. He answers the Squire's questions honestly, even when they humiliate him. His declaration—"And I love her!"—is simple and sincere. He wins the Squire's grudging respect not by argument but by his honesty. The Squire has recently learned from Fewtrell that Clement is knowledgable in agriculture.
- The Squire's tears: The old man is too old for tears, but his lip trembles. He is giving up more than his pride—he is giving up Josina's daily presence, her care, her comfort. The novel ends not with a triumphant romance but with a quiet, bittersweet sacrifice.
Armigeri is the Latin plural of armiger, meaning "one who bears arms" — a gentleman entitled to bear a coat of arms. In English usage, it is the equivalent of "esquire."
The Squire's pride in his family's Armigeri status is central to his identity. Garth had been "in the hands of gentlefolk, of Armigeri from Harry the Eighth" — a lineage stretching back to the reign of Henry VIII. The thought of it passing to a banker's son is, to him, a fall from grace.
"Grew as fast as Jonah's gourd" — a biblical allusion to the Book of Jonah (4:6-10). God caused a gourd to grow up over Jonah's head to shelter him from the sun, but it withered the next day.
The Squire's fear for Josina's health grows as rapidly as Jonah's gourd. The reference is apt: the gourd was a temporary comfort that soon disappeared. The Squire's fear that he might lose Josina is sudden, overwhelming, and changes everything.
Limbo — in Christian theology, the borderland between heaven and hell, the place of souls who are not damned but not yet redeemed. In common usage, it means oblivion or a place of neglect.
The Squire fears that the name of Griffin will pass "into limbo" — into oblivion, forgotten. He imagines his own funeral, the last of his race, and the thought fills him with dread.
"Nesh" is a dialect word meaning soft, tender, delicate, or susceptible to cold. It was common in the Midlands and the North of England.
Miss Peacock says of Josina: "Josina was always nesh—like her mother." The word suggests fragility and vulnerability. The Squire's fear that Josina might be fading like her mother is a powerful motive for his surrender.
Easthope is a village in Shropshire, near the border with Herefordshire. It was a real place — the kind of small yeoman community where Clement's grandfather had been a farmer.
The Squire's questioning of Clement's ancestry reveals that Clement's grandfather was "a yeoman at Easthope." Yeomen were small landowners, below the gentry but above the labouring class. The Squire finds this, just barely, acceptable.
No comments:
Post a Comment