The History of Henry Esmond, Esquire by William Makepeace Thackeray

First published: 1852

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Bildungsroman

Time of plot: Late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries

Locale: England and the Low Countries

Principal characters

• Henry Esmond, a Castlewood ward
• Francis Esmond, Viscount Castlewood
• Rachel Esmond, his wife
• Beatrix, their daughter
• Frank, their son
• Lord Mohun, a London rake
• Father Holt, a Jacobite spy
• James Stuart, the exiled pretender

The Story:

Henry Esmond grows up at Castlewood. He knows there is some mystery about his birth, and he dimly remembers that long ago he lived with weavers who spoke a foreign tongue. Thomas Esmond, Viscount Castlewood, brought him to England and turned him over to Father Holt, the chaplain, to be educated. That much he learns as he grows older.

All is not peace and quiet at Castlewood in those years; Thomas Esmond and Father Holt were involved in a plot for the restoration of the exiled Stuart king, James II. When James attempts to recover Ireland for the Stuarts, Thomas Esmond rides off to his death at the Battle of the Boyne. His widow flees to her dower house at Chelsea. Father Holt disappears. Henry, a large-eyed, grave-faced twelve-year-old boy, is left alone with servants in the gloomy old house.

There his new guardians and distant cousins, Francis and Rachel Esmond, find him when they arrive to take possession of Castlewood. The new Viscount Castlewood, a bluff, loud-voiced man, greets the boy kindly enough. His wife is like a girl herself—she is only eight years older than Henry—and Henry thinks her the loveliest lady he has ever seen. With them are a little daughter, Beatrix, and a baby in arms, Frank.

As Henry grows older, he becomes increasingly concerned over the rift he sees developing between Rachel and her husband, both of whom he loves because they treat him as one of the immediate family. It is plain that the hard-drinking, hard-gambling nobleman is wearying of his quiet country life. After Rachel’s face is disfigured by smallpox, her altered appearance leads her husband to neglect her even more. Young Beatrix also feels that relations between her parents are strained.

When Henry is old enough, he is sent to Cambridge on money left to Rachel by a deceased relative. Later, when he returns to Castlewood on a vacation, he realizes for the first time that Beatrix is extremely pretty. Rachel has great regard for her young kinsman. Before his return from Cambridge, Rachel, according to Beatrix, goes to Henry’s room ten times to see that it is ready.

Relations between Rachel and the Viscount are all but severed when the notorious Lord Mohun visits Castlewood. Rachel knows her husband had been losing heavily to Mohun at cards, but when she speaks to the Viscount about the bad company he keeps, he flies into a rage. He is by no means calmed when Beatrix innocently blurts out to her father, in the company of Mohun, that the gentleman is interested in Rachel. Jealous of another man’s attentions to the wife he himself neglects, the Viscount determines to seek satisfaction in a duel.

The two men fight in London, where the Viscount had gone on the pretext of seeing a doctor. Henry suspects the real reason for the trip and goes along, for he hopes to engage Mohun in a duel himself and thus save the life of his beloved guardian. The Viscount, however, is in no mood to be cheated out of a quarrel. He is heavily in debt to Mohun and thinks a fight is the only honorable way out of his difficulties. Moreover, he knows Mohun wrote letters to Rachel, although, as the villain explains, she never answered them. They fight, and Mohun fatally wounds the Viscount. On his deathbed, the Viscount confesses to Henry that he is not an illegitimate child but the son of Thomas, Lord Castlewood, by an early marriage and thus the true heir to the Castlewood title. Henry generously burns the dying man’s confession and resolves never to divulge the secret.

For his part in the duel, Henry is sent to prison. When Rachel visits Henry in prison, she is enraged because he did not stop the duel and because he allowed Mohun to go unpunished. She rebukes Henry and forbids him to return to Castlewood. When Henry leaves prison, he decides to join the army. For that purpose, he visits the old dowager Viscountess, his stepmother, who buys him a commission.

Henry’s military ventures are highly successful and win for him his share of wounds and glory. He fights in the campaign of the duke of Marlborough against Spain and France in 1702 and in the campaign of Blenheim in 1704. Between the two campaigns, he returns to Castlewood, where he reconciles with Rachel. There he sees Frank, now Lord Castlewood, and Beatrix, who is cordial toward him. Rachel cautions Henry that Beatrix is selfish and temperamental and will make no man who loves her happy.

After the campaign of 1704, Henry returns to his cousins, who are living in London. To Henry, Beatrix is more beautiful than ever and even more the coquette, but he finds himself unable to make up his mind whether he loves her or Rachel. Later, during the campaign of 1706, he learns from Frank that Beatrix is engaged to an earl. The news puts Henry in low spirits because he now feels she would never marry a poor captain like himself.

Henry’s affairs of the heart are put temporarily into the background when he comes upon Father Holt in Brussels. The priest tells Henry that while on an expedition in the Low Countries, Thomas Esmond, his father, had seduced the young woman who was Henry’s mother. A few weeks before his child was born, Thomas Esmond was injured in a duel. Thinking he would die, he married the woman so that her child would be born with an untainted name. Thomas Esmond, however, did not die, and when he recovered from his wounds, he deserted his wife and married a distant kinswoman, the dowager Viscountess, Henry’s stepmother.

When Henry returns to Castlewood, Rachel informs him that she has learned his secret from the old Viscountess and consequently knows that he, not Frank, is the true heir. For the second time, Henry refuses to accept the title belonging to him.

Beatrix’s interest in Henry grows after she becomes engaged to the duke of Hamilton and learns that Henry is not illegitimate in birth but the bearer of the title her brother uses. Henry wants to give Beatrix a diamond necklace for a wedding present, but the duke will not permit his fiancé to receive a gift from one of illegitimate birth. Rachel comes to the young man’s defense and declares before the duke, her daughter, and Henry the secret of his birth and title. Later, the duke is killed in a duel with Lord Mohun, who also meets his death at the same time. The killing of Rachel’s husband is avenged.

The duke of Hamilton’s death gives Henry one more chance to win Beatrix’s heart. He throws himself into a plot to put the young Stuart pretender on the throne when old Queen Anne dies. To this end, he goes to France and helps smuggle into England the young chevalier whom the Jacobites call James III, the king over the water. The two come secretly to the Castlewood home in London, the prince passing as Frank, the young Viscount, and there the royal exile sees and falls in love with Beatrix.

Fearing the results of this infatuation, Lady Castlewood and Henry send Beatrix to Castlewood against her will. When a report that the queen is dying sweeps through London, the prince is nowhere to be found. Henry and Frank make a night ride to Castlewood. Finding the pretender there in the room used by Father Holt in the old days, they renounce him and the Jacobite cause. Henry realizes his love for Beatrix is dead at last. He feels no regrets for her or for the prince as he rides back to London and hears the heralds proclaiming George I the new king.

The prince makes his way secretly back to France, where Beatrix joins him in his exile. At last, Henry feels free to declare himself to Rachel, who has grown very dear to him. Leaving Frank in possession of the title and the Castlewood estates, Henry and his wife go to America. In Virginia, he and Rachel build a new Castlewood, rear a family, and find happiness in their old age.

Bibliography

Clarke, Micael M. Thackeray and Women. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1995. Examines Thackeray’s life, novels, and other works from a feminist-sociological perspective to analyze his treatment of female characters, demonstrating how his writings critique the position of women in Western culture. Includes bibliographical references and an index.

Ferris, Ina. “The Uses of History: The History of Henry Esmond.” In William Makepeace Thackeray, edited by Herbert Sussman. Boston: Twayne, 1983. Focuses on Thackeray’s self-conscious realism and analyzes the complex question of how fiction can respond to and reflect reality. Begins with a brief contemporary reaction to the novel, as well as Thackeray’s own statements about the work.

Fisher, Judith L. Thackeray’s Skeptical Narrative and the “Perilous Trade” of Authorship. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002. An analysis of Thackeray’s narrative techniques, describing how he sought to create a “kind of poised reading which enables his readers to integrate his fiction into their life.”

Harden, Edgar F. Thackeray the Writer: From Journalism to “Vanity Fair.” New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Thackeray the Writer: From “Pendennis” to “Denis Duval.” New York: Macmillan, 2000. Two-volume biography chronicling Thackeray’s development as a writer, beginning with his experiences as a book reviewer and culminating in the creation of Vanity Fair. Traces how Thackeray became an increasingly perceptive social observer.

Hardy, Barbara. The Exposure of Luxury: Radical Themes inThackeray. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972. Discusses aspects of Thackeray’s social criticism and shows his preoccupation with the surface manners of his society. Examines Thackeray’s self-consciousness and lack of moral optimism as elements of his radical thinking and caring about humanity.

Loofbourow, John. Thackeray and the Form of Fiction. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964. An excellent starting point for serious study. Discusses the interrelationship of form and content in four novels: The History of Henry Esmond, Esquire, The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), The Newcomes (1853-1855), and Vanity Fair (1847-1848).

Lukacs, George. “Henry Esmond as an Historical Novel.” In Thackeray: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Alexander Welsh. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Examines the ways in which Thackeray uses history as the framework within which to construct his novel.

Peters, Catherine. Thackeray’s Universe: Shifting Worlds of Imagination and Reality. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1987. Readable and well balanced. Relates Thackeray’s fiction to his life, in particular stressing his challenge to his society. Includes a selected bibliography.

Taylor, D. J. Thackeray: The Life of a Literary Man. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2001. A lengthy biography that argues for Thackeray’s preeminence among nineteenth century English novelists. A generally comprehensive study of the man that sheds much light on his work.

Tilford, John E., Jr. “The Love Theme of Henry Esmond.” In Thackeray: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Alexander Welsh. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Discusses love as the theme of the novel and as it relates to Thackeray’s own life.