Fiction · 1839
Catherine
A Story
Catherine Hayes, a country innkeeper's servant, is seduced by Count Galgenstein, abandoned, married off to a man she despises, and eventually murders him — a real crime of 1726, retold at length and with the sordidness left in. Around her move Corporal Brock, a deserter and thief of great resource, and her son Thomas Billings, who is as bad as she is. Thackeray stops the narrative at intervals to remind the reader that these people are not admirable and that no one should be enjoying this, which is the whole point of the book.
Thackeray published Catherine in Fraser's Magazine in 1839 and 1840 under the name Ikey Solomons, Esq., Junior. He wrote it in direct attack on the Newgate novel — the fashion, as he saw it in Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford and Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, for making criminals into romantic heroes — and the difficulty he had in keeping his own story ugly enough is visible throughout.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.
Contents
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- Chapter I — Introducing to the reader the chief personages of this narrative
- Chapter II — In Which Are Depicted the Pleasures of a Sentimental Attachment
- Chapter III — In Which a Narcotic Is Administered, and a Great Deal of Genteel Society Depicted
- Chapter IV — In Which Mrs. Catherine Becomes an Honest Woman Again
- Chapter V — Contains Mr. Brock’s Autobiography, and Other Matters
- Chapter VI — Adventures of the Ambassador, Mr. Macshane
- Chapter VII — Which Embraces a Period of Seven Years
- Chapter VIII — Enumerates the Accomplishments of Master Thomas Billings—Introduces Brock as Doctor Wood—And Announces the Execution of Ensign Macshane
- Chapter IX — Interview Between Count Galgenstein and Master Thomas Billings, When He Informs the Count of His Parentage
- Chapter X — Showing How Galgenstein and Mrs. Cat Recognise Each Other in Marylebone Gardens—And How the Count Drives Her Home in His Carriage
- Chapter XI — Of Some Domestic Quarrels, and the Consequence Thereof
- Chapter XII — Treats of Love, and Prepares for Death
- Chapter XIII — Being a Preparation for the End
- Chapter the Last
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1811–1863 · Victorian
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was born in Calcutta and sent to England at six; he gambled away much of an inheritance at Cambridge, then tried painting in Paris before turning to journalism, writing under various pseudonyms for Fraser's Magazine and Punch. Vanity Fair (1847–48), serialized without his name attached at first, made his reputation as Dickens's great rival; Pendennis, Henry Esmond and The Newcomes followed, but he never matched its scale again. He died suddenly in London at fifty-two.
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