You have got to love a book that has the word 'sunshiny' in it, not once but nine times. And if you are into sunshiny statistics, Louisa May Alcott managed to use the word seven times in the course of seven novels; Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens used it at least twice each, and George Eliot used it at least once. (Statistics courtesy of The Ministry of Useless Information).
John Halifax, Gentleman is a bildungsroman, a novel that tells the story of an individual as they develop from childhood to maturity. (See Jane Eyre). It is also a David and Jonathan story.
John Halifax is an orphan boy. He is used to sleeping rough as he moves about the countryside looking for work. John will not beg and only takes what he can get from honest work. In the town of Norton Bury, John gets hired by Abel Fletcher and begins to learn the tanning trade.
He befriends Abel's son Phineas (the story's narrator) and becomes a David to Phineas' Jonathan. Got that? John becomes David and Phineas becomes Jon. We follow the two friends as they stick together throughout their lives: Phineas as a bachelor invalid and John as an ever-prosperous and influential businessman, community leader and family man. Their troubles are many, and each problem is met with Christian fortitude and large doses of common decency.
He befriends Abel's son Phineas (the story's narrator) and becomes a David to Phineas' Jonathan. Got that? John becomes David and Phineas becomes Jon. We follow the two friends as they stick together throughout their lives: Phineas as a bachelor invalid and John as an ever-prosperous and influential businessman, community leader and family man. Their troubles are many, and each problem is met with Christian fortitude and large doses of common decency.
I really enjoyed John Halifax, Gentleman. Admittedly, it can be construed as a sort of Mills and Boon novel for Victorian times; however, there is a depth and breadth to the themes present in this book that goes way beyond a boy-meets-girl story. It is all in there: life and death, joy and sorrow, health and sickness, poverty and prosperity, malice and love. Any theme that Mrs Craik introduces is explored well and never cursorily. Through Phineas the narrator she allows us to peer into the hearts of the characters of Norton Bury, and all is bathed in the light of Christian love and moral integrity. I think in this respect John Halifax, Gentleman is a warmer and more gladdening book than Jane Eyre. Well worth the effort.
John Halifax, Gentleman was first published in 1856. I read an e-book version. Review.
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