I don’t know what it is about old books that both repulses and enchants me. I approach them with caution; unlike when I fail to finish a modern book, I consider my failure to finish a classic book to be an absolute betrayal — literary homicide, if you will. This perseverance has gotten me through several novels I would normally be too distracted to finish, such as Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (which I very much liked). The novel is a bildungsroman and follows the life of Philip Carey, a young boy with a club foot and questionable common sense, from practically infancy to his late twenties/early thirties.

This novel was emotionally frustrating; Philip is a pathetic but intricately human character. His behavior is influenced by his youthful innocence, his thirst for love, and his pride — therefore, Philip becomes believable but not necessarily praiseworthy for the entire course of the novel, which, if you’re interested, you’ll discover in my following analysis of the novel. Yar, here be almost complete spoilers. Beware!

Growing up

Philip is born into a happy family; unfortunately, that changes all too soon. his father, a prominent surgeon, dies just prior the start of the novel, and his mother, always frail, becomes an invalid after the birth of a stillborn son. She knows that she is dying, so she worries relentlessly about Philip’s future, which doesn’t explain why he doesn’t value the guidance of his female protectors until much later. Upon her death, young Philip is shipped off to his uncle’s house, Mr. William Carey, the Vicar of Blackstable. Both Uncle William and his wife, Louisa, are ridiculously religious; Despite his religious fervor, Uncle William appears ingratiating and wholly selfish (Aunt Louisa, on the other hand, is childless and bestows on Philip an untold amount of affection) — he decides that Philip should one day become a vicar himself, and sends him to King’s School, an elite academy that has prepared numerous boys for religious service. Philip’s interest for a career in religion fades as he struggles with his faith; at one point in the story, upon hearing faith being able to “move mountains”, prays to the point of exhaustion for his club-foot to be cured, which it never is. At King’s, he also develops a latent contempt for humanity.

Around the age of sixteen, Philip drops out of King’s School and lives for a short time with a host family in Heidelberg, Germany. Here, he meets Hayward, a romantic and inspiring figure who powers Philip’s dreams. While at the house of the Frau Professor, Philip first comes face to face with poverty and scandal, although neither events involved him directly. Upon his return to Blackstable, he meets Emily Wilkinson (the first of this story’s tragic heroines), a woman twice his age who he manages to convince Hayward (through correspondence) and himself that he loves. He finally comes to terms with her artificial “beauty”, showy ways, and age — she takes an appointment as a governess elsewhere, and Philip is free again. He takes a temporary job as an accountant, but is urged by Hayward to go to Paris — where the world feels alive — and pursue a career as an artist. His uncle initially opposes the idea, for naturally, he views Paris as the seat of all sin, but with a generous donation from Aunt Louisa, Philip is able to go to Paris and enroll in an art school.

Paris

Paris transforms Philip beyond belief. Even later in the novel, he always looks back to Paris for inspiration and for fond memories that continue to change his thoughts. Here, Philip meets (among many other characters) Fanny Price (the second of this story’s tragic heroines), who was “blessed” with no artistic ability, but an insatiable ego. She takes it upon herself to mother Philip and show him what art is “truly about”, according to herself. Philip surpasses Fanny with ease, but takes pity on her because of her poverty (she wears the same dirty dress to every class) and lack of talent. In the end, Fanny commits suicide because of the pressures of her poverty — she, like many would-be artists, hungered for a profitable career from her artwork — and her final realization that her work is, unfortunately, no good. During her life, she came across as a spiteful and domineering young woman — not quite Philip’s love interest, but definitely fond of him — and looked down upon far more successful and romantic fellow students, such as lecherous Ruth Chalice, her lover Lawson, Clutton, and finally Cronshaw, an eccentric alcoholic, who gifts him a Persian carpet that “holds the meaning of life” — it is not until after this is destroyed that Philip realizes how worthless the carpet, and thereby life, truly appears to be.

After succumbing to poverty, and unable to match the artistic successes of some of his friends, Philip persuades one of the art instructors, Monsieur Foinet, to come to his apartment and view his work — aside from his lack of money and its associated misery, Philip intends to strive for his career as an artist if only his instructor deems that he has any talent. Foinet finds in Philip a “certain manual dexterity”, but promises that no matter how hard Philip works, his art will never be more than mediocre. Foinet encourages Philip to give up the life of an artist before it consumes him, and while he still has the will and strength to pursue other careers. Of himself, he says only this:

It is cruel to discover one’s mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper.

Acting upon Foinet’s advice, Philip leaves Paris and its sad yet poignant memories and returns to Blackstable once again.

London

Before he leaves Paris, Philip receives a somber letter from his uncle that announces the death of his Aunt Louisa. He returns to find his uncle rather unaffected; in fact, when Josiah Graves (fitting last name, don’t you agree?) suggests, “With Christ, which is far better” for her tombstone, the vicar responds that he rather prefers “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away.” This is not to say that Uncle William has no compassion for his late wife, only that he seldom shows it or deliberately avoids such routes. Thus Louisa passes from the world, mourned by many, but barely even by her own emotionally-parsimonious husband. The vicar sees in Philip a young man of “irresolution, incompetence, want of foresight, and lack of determination.” Philip responds by saying that he intends to pursue a career in medicine at his father’s old hospital. His uncle scoffs and asks if his two years in Paris were wasted time. Philip answers out of spite —

I learned to look at hands, which I’d never looked at before. And instead of just looking at houses and trees I learned to look at houses and trees against the sky. And I learned also that shadows are not black but coloured [sic].

— effectively halting his uncle’s commentary.

Mildred

After some time at his hospital, Philip goes with his dissection partner to a café. His partner indicates a young waitress, scrawny and pale — Mildred. At first, Philip detests her and pays her no mind, but gradually, he becomes enthralled with her, beginning his downward spiral into a false love. Mildred is carelessly flippant. She pays no mind to Philip; she borrows money from him regularly to spend with another lover, on one occasion one of Philip’s dear friends. When things appear, finally, to be settling down, Philip attempts to propose to her only to find that she has recently become engaged to a young man whom she had been away from for several months. Philip blocks her from his mind temporarily by making friends with a young mother and author, Norah, who, although she is clearly infatuated with Philip and cares for him with incredible compassion, does not receive more than an ounce of his love. He bides his time with Norah, and his old friend Lawson from Paris.

Mildred, unfortunately, does return with a vengeance — or at least, a baby on the way. Philip, again pitying her, visits her constantly at her boarding house, ignoring and betraying Norah. When Mildred leaves with Philip’s friend, Philip tries to return to Norah but finds her engaged to her editor, and moves to a new apartment, trying to cleanse his life of the dramatic tension Mildred seems to leave behind in her wake. He decorates it with pictures Lawson drew of him, his sketches of Miguel Ajuria (a male Fanny Price, if you will), and the “magic carpet” Cronshaw gave him. Surprisingly, Cronshaw himself comes to visit Philip. A lifelong alcoholic, Cronshaw has cirrhosis of the liver and intends to die in his friend’s company, but only after he has published his poems:

Now that he was going to die he wanted to leave behind himself a published book … he expected to burst upon the world like a new star. There was something fine in keeping to himself these treasures of beauty all his life and giving them to the world disdainfully when, he and the world parting company, he had no further use for them.

After Cronshaw’s tragic death, Philip receives a letter from Mildred. He invites her into his apartment with her child, whom he begins to love. She only laughs at him for this, making fun of his ability to love another man’s baby. But he has long since learned his lesson. He shows her no love, and she rapidly becomes frustrated. She doesn’t love him — she never has — but the lack of romantic attention pulls at her dreary mind. In a fit, she calls him every insult she can imagine, and as she leaves the apartment, she screams, “Cripple!” — a final stinging reminder of her. Philip decides not to worry and goes to the hospital as usual. When he returns, he finds that Mildred has left his apartment in ruins:

Everything that it had been possible to destroy with a knife or a hammer was destroyed.

With his life in shambles (his books, his portraits, even his “magic carpet” all gone), Philip seeks cheaper rooms and tries to make do on a minimal allowance. He meets a stockbroker who promises him riches from Africa, and he succeeds on his first attempt. With fate on his side, supposedly, he invests again only to lose almost everything he owns. Now on the brink of poverty, Philip begins to starve and is forced to sacrifice his pride for his ability to survive. He rooms with a patient he tended — Thorpe Athelny, a fervent lover of all things Spanish (in fact, he has named his daughters such things as Maria del Sol [Sally, the eldest and most pretty], Maria del Rosario [Rosie] etc.; Philip has not heard of Spain since his Paris days, when El Greco’s¹ name was mentioned with extreme adoration. He gratefully accepts an invitation from Athelny to stay at his house, and takes a job as an assistant in a clothing store. He succeeds rapidly here, going from directing ladies to departments to designing clothing with his artistic ability. But he knows that he cannot return to the hospital until he has enough money again — the only thing he can do is wait for his uncle to die.

This part is probably the most amusing of the entire story because it is the most morbid. Uncle William, now weak and worn, clings desperately to life because he is so afraid of death. At one point, murder crosses Philip’s mind and he immediately shakes it from his system. He cannot possible imagine that he is so desperate to return to his career. Uncle William does die, after slipping too slowly for Philip to bear into an absolutely helpless state. Philip is finally free to return to the hospital. One day in London, however, he finds a letter from Mildred again who says she is ill. Philip knows not to offer any more aid than his position as a medical student grants him, and he finds her in a dingy apartment without her baby — the little girl died the year before. He instructs her to take a certain medicine and leaves, but is curious as to how she still manages to have money. He waits at a corner and sees her leave later towards the park, attempting to sell herself to passerby. He tries to stop her but she turns him away. From this point on, Mildred does not ever meet Philip, and this is, of course for the better. It leaves Philip free to see patients, witness life and death, and take an appointment by the sea with Dr. South. After a few months, Philip sadly parts ways with Dr. South to go work in the hop-field with the Athelnys, and the old man offers to keep his position open, in case Philip should return.

Philip thought of the fortnight he was going to spend in the hop-field; he was happy at the idea of seeing his friends again, and he rejoiced because the day was fine. But Doctor South walked slowly back to his empty house. He felt very old and very lonely.

Philip falls in love with Sally and gets a chance to exercise an unbridled passion with her that he had only dreamed of with Norah and Mildred. It leads to a pregnancy scare, and eventually Philip’s plan to propose to Sally. He intends to return to the sea to take the position Dr. South offered him, with Sally by his side, but when he discovers that Sally was not pregnant at all, he feels as if his hopes are dashed for the third consecutive time. Wearily, he proposes regardless, for he still has a deep affection for Sally that she, for once, is able to return. Philip’s struggle, against disability, false loves, dishonesty, and hopeless ventures, is finally over and he presumably returns with Spain’s daughter to the sea-shore.

What really captured me about this novel was that it so accurately captured the emotions of love and grief, confusion and anger. It gave you characters you could enjoy, like Athelny, and characters you detested like Mildred (I was prepared to put the book down after Philip encountered her a third time). Most of all, it pitted a young boy against his own humanity and his world and allows him to separate the two with relative success. It’s life; that’s all it needed to be.

…and the sun was shining.