Last quarter of the 19th century. On the outskirts of the small Scottish town of Livenford lies a huge, grotesque house, which the townspeople derisively call Castle Brodie, built in accordance with the fantasies of its owner, hat shop owner James Brodie. In addition to the head of the family, his wife Margaret and three children live in the house of different ages, as well as James' elderly mother. Mr. Brody, a tall man, distinguished by remarkable physical strength, behaves rudely and despotically with his household, demanding impeccable adherence to the daily routine and execution of any of his orders; all the inhabitants of this castle experience deep fear of him.
Mrs. Margaret Brodie is only a little over forty, but the woman is already completely exhausted by incessant housework and the tyranny of her husband, and outwardly she seems much older. From early morning until late evening, Margaret works tirelessly, trying to please her husband, whom she is terribly afraid of, but James never appreciates her efforts. The woman only hears mocking remarks from him; he calls her a slob, an armless, a klutz; in a fit of anger, Brody is capable of hitting Margaret, who is absolutely unable to resist him.
The eldest of the children, Matthew, is already over twenty; in the very near future he is going to go to serve in India, where his father has arranged for him. The cowardly guy, spoiled by his mother, is afraid to leave home, but Margaret tells him that there is no choice, that it is impossible not to obey the will of Brody the father, although she herself suffers severely due to the fact that she will be forced to part with her pet.
Brody's daughter Mary turned seventeen, the girl is blossoming and prettier day by day, but James prefers to keep her locked up at home, only letting her out for shopping and not allowing her to communicate with any of the local youth. Mary works around the house with her mother day after day, but feels that her father’s constant pressure is already becoming unbearable for her.
The youngest girl, Nessie, is twelve, all the teachers at school consider her extremely capable, and her father expects a lot from her, hoping that over time she will become a famous scientist and glorify his family. He strictly demands from his daughter daily success in her school successes and becomes furious if it turns out that Nessie was not the best among her classmates. Brody makes the girl do her homework whenever she's free from school activities time, not allowing her to go outside and play with other children. Nessie, like her mother, is constantly afraid of not pleasing her father and incurring his wrath, so she studies very diligently, trying not to think about the fact that she is deprived of virtually all the joys of childhood.
The first scene of the novel is the evening tea party at Castle Brodie, which, as is customary in this house, begins exactly at half past five. During the meal, Margaret, as always, diligently serves her husband, trying not to anger him in any way, and James reproaches Mary. He was told that the girl was communicating with a certain Dennis Foyle, the son of a whiskey merchant, and he sharply demands that Mary stop all acquaintance with this young man, whom he considers absolutely unworthy of his daughter. But Mary, although she experiences a certain fear, tries to protect young man, saying that he is quite decent and there is nothing bad in their conversations.
After dinner, the girl decides to leave the house for a while, hoping that her parents won’t miss her. She meets Dennis and the young people go to the fair and masquerade together. Mary, who is constantly forced to be at home, is delighted with the sights that appear before her eyes, and it all ends with intimacy with Foyle on the river bank, although naive, absolutely not knowledgeable about life the girl does not quite realize what is happening to her at this moment.
A few days after this, Matthew leaves for India, and soon Mary notices that her condition is changing somewhat, she begins to recover, and her natural female ailments cease. But Mary doesn’t understand what’s going on until she manages to see a doctor, having escaped her mother’s supervision for several hours. The doctor explains to the girl that she will soon have a child and it is best for her to get married as soon as possible.
When Mary announces to Dennis that she will become a mother, the young man is at first horrified and considers running away, but then feels that he simply cannot leave the girl alone, knowing her father's hot-tempered and ruthless temper. Foyle promises his beloved that he will definitely marry her, but he must wait a few months so that he has time to prepare the house where he and Mary will live after the wedding. He asks the girl to carefully hide her situation from her relatives; Mary herself understands that her father will simply kill her if he finds out the truth.
No one really notices that the girl is pregnant for quite a long time, but one night, when a terrible thunderstorm rages in the area, Mary goes into labor prematurely. When her mother sees what is happening to her, Margaret panics about how her husband will react. Without even trying to protect her daughter, Mrs. Brody informs her husband about what happened to Mary, swearing to him of her own innocence, that she raised the girl correctly, in accordance with Christian commandments.
An enraged James kicks Mary in the stomach and drives her out of the house into the pouring rain. The girl gives birth to a boy in the barn of one of the local peasants, where she tries to hide from the weather, but the child dies, despite all the efforts of Doctor Renwick, who is called to help Mary. That same night, by a fateful coincidence, the train on which Dennis is already traveling to pick up his beloved crashes, and the young man dies. After a long illness, Mary, with the help of Dr. Renwick, gets back on her feet and decides to leave for London, not wanting to ever remember her parents' home and everything that happened to her.
James Brody categorically forbids everyone in the family to ever mention Mary's name, believing that her daughter has humiliated and disgraced their family, and there is no longer a place for her in his life. After some time, Matthew returns, although he was supposed to spend at least two years in India. Brody receives a letter that his son has been dismissed from service for dishonest performance of duties and regular drinking. He greets Matthew with mocking ridicule, and the weak-willed but cunning young man tries in every possible way to appease his mother and beg her for money for alcoholic drinks. However, in lately things in James Brody's shop are not going well at all, and he gives his wife meager sums for housekeeping, while at the same time demanding that she continue to feed him tasty and high-quality food.
Returning home after another fun evening, Matthew sees his mother almost unconscious lying at the doorstep of the house. The young man hurries after the doctor and finds only Renwick, not knowing that his father had a big quarrel with this doctor because of Mary. Renwick, having examined Margaret, announces that she has an advanced form of cancer, that she has been ill for a very long time and now nothing can be done, the unfortunate woman has no more than six months to live. James doesn't want to believe him, but his own family doctor confirms Renwick's diagnosis.
After Margaret's death, Brody brings into the house a girl, Nancy, who previously worked in a drinking establishment. James himself is now constantly tipsy, his shop is completely going bankrupt, and he is forced to get a job as an ordinary employee in an office. Nancy, young and healthy woman, soon becomes extremely sad and bored in Brody's house, she becomes close to Matt and then runs away with him to the American continent, leaving James a mocking note.
Now all Brody's hopes are connected only with Nessie, who has already become a high school student. He is obsessed with the idea that the girl will definitely receive a scholarship named after Sir John Latt and enter higher education. educational institution, forcing her to continue studying. Overexertion and a half-starved existence leads to the fact that Nessie begins to suffer from headaches more and more often; the girl feels that she simply cannot survive next to her oppressive father if someone does not come to her aid. She manages to find out Mary's London address and writes a letter to her sister, begging her to come and protect her from her father.
Mary, feeling sorry for her younger sister, actually returns home, although her father greets her extremely unfriendly and coldly. She tries to persuade James to leave Nessie alone, and Dr. Renwick openly talks about what he doesn't like state of mind a frightened girl, but Brody does not want to listen to anyone and continues to insist that Nessie must take the exams for the Latt scholarship.
At the end of the test, Nessie asks Mary to go to the pharmacy for headache powders. The older sister leaves home, and at that moment Nessie receives an answer from the school. The girl sees with horror that the scholarship went not to her, but to another student, and with despair she thinks that her father will now simply destroy her, as he has threatened more than once before.
Nessie decides to commit suicide, believing that she simply has no other choice; her sister finds her already hanging in a noose. At this time, Renwick also comes to the house, they try to bring Nessie back to life, but to no avail, the girl is already dead. The doctor takes the sobbing Mary with him, inviting her to become his wife and never return to her father’s house.
Left alone, Brody bitterly realizes that he has lost absolutely everything in life, that now there is no one next to him and he has nothing to hope for. A man looks at the surroundings from the window of his castle, realizing that he himself is to blame for his complete loneliness and the tragedy that befell his family.
The novel "Castle Brody" - the very first significant work in the works of Archibald Cronin. This attempt at writing brought the writer unprecedented success. Interest was fueled by the author's skill, the psychological revelation of the characters and the ability to immerse the reader in the narrative.
The plot is built around the story of the Brody family. It's the 1880s. James Brody owns a hat shop. He lives in the Scottish town of Leavenford. Members of his family live with him: his mother, wife Margaret, son Matthew, daughters Nessie and Mary.
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The head of the family is a cruel and despotic person. Thanks to wealthy clients, he becomes famous in the city. Brody despises everyone who is lower in status than him. The family suffers under his tyranny, and the people of Leavenford secretly hate him. Vanity and ferocity cloud the businessman's mind. He values only wealth.
Daughter Mary secretly sees Denis Foyle. Upon learning of this, her father tells her to break off the relationship. However, the girl secretly goes on a date. After meeting together, Denis proposes to her. But marriage should be temporarily postponed. The couple will have to buy their own home.
Mary discovers she is pregnant. Fearing her father's wrath, she tries to retire to her room. But the mother discovers her daughter's pregnancy. Mrs. Brodie is scared to death of her husband and tells him what happened. Mary finds herself on the street in the middle of the night.
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In the middle of the night, a girl wanders through the forest. Miraculously, she makes it to her home. Trying to remain unnoticed, she sneaks into the barn. The mistress of the house finds her in the barn. Mary, unconscious, is taken to the hospital.
James Brody learns that Mary's child has died. The girl herself went to London to work as a servant. But this news does not upset the businessman. He abandoned his daughter. When he thinks about the death of Dennis Foyle, he feels schadenfreude.
A new haberdashery store, Manjo and Co., is opening in Linford. Skillful advertising, design and service attracts buyers. Mr. Brody continues to be rude to his customers. Most of them go to Manjo and Co. Things are getting worse for Brody.
Son Matthew changes for the worse. He demands money from his mother and, not receiving it, steals a valuable watch. His behavior provokes the progression of Mrs. Brody's illness.
Having reached the point of complete ruin, James Brody turns to drink. He loses everything: his career and his family. I don’t want to admit my guilt; he places his hope in his daughter Nessie. Under pressure from her father, Nessie works hard for a university scholarship.
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The novel Castle Brodie can be considered an example of clinical psychopathology. Archibald Cronin shows how his hero approaches insanity step by step. Accustomed to luxury, he mocks the poor. However, having lost everything, he realizes with horror what his fault is.
PART ONE
1
The spring of 1879 was surprisingly early and warm. The green of the early crops spread like an even veil across the fields of lower Scotland, the “candles” on the chestnuts blossomed already in April, and the hawthorn bushes that bordered the white ribbons of country roads like hedges began to bloom a whole month earlier than usual. In the villages, farmers rejoiced with restraint, and children ran barefoot behind the watering machines. In the cities located along the banks of a wide river, the clanging of iron in the shipyards no longer seemed so intrusive and in the soft spring air, rising to the hills, merged with the buzz of the first bee and was drowned in the jubilant bleating of lambs. In the offices, the clerks, taking off their jackets and lounging exhaustedly on their chairs, cursed the hot weather, were indignant at the policies of Lord Beaconsfield, at the news of the war with the Zulus, and at the high cost of beer.
Over the whole mouth of the River Clyde, from Glasgow to Portdoren, over Overton, Darroch, Erdfillen - towns located between the Winton and Doreen hills and forming, as it were, the three points of a triangle of fertile land on the right bank, the estuary - and over the ancient town of Levenford, lying in at the base of this triangle, in the very place where Leven flows into the Clyde, the sun shone dazzlingly over everything, and, warmed by its wonderful, gracious warmth, people worked, idle, chatted, grumbled, prayed, loved, and lived.
One May morning, sparse patches of clouds hung lazily over Leavenford, in the heat-stricken heights. But towards the end of the day, those gossamer-thin clouds slowly began to move. A warm breeze arose and drove them across the sky, and when they were out of sight, the breeze blew across the city. The first thing he encountered on the way was a high historical rock that stood like a lighthouse at the confluence of the River Clyde with its tributary Leven and was clearly drawn against the opal sky, resembling the motionless carcass of a huge elephant. A warm wind circled the rock and quickly swept through the hot streets of the wretched suburb. the New City, and then between the high stocks, cranes and frames of unfinished ships at the Latta and Co. shipyards located along the sea arm, where work was in full swing; after that he walked along Church Street - slowly, as befits a stroll along the main street, where the city hall, the city school and the parish church are located, and, finally, having passed this decorous street, he twirled cheerfully in the hospitable open space main square. Then, somehow hesitantly, as if in thought, he walked between the rows of shops in the High Street and reached Knoxhill, a high-lying block of residential buildings. Here he soon grew tired of walking along the terraces of weathered red sandstone and rustling in the ivy on the walls of old stone houses, and, trying to quickly get out into the fields, the breeze again swept through the city between the prim villas of the aristocratic quarter of Well Hall, passing by the round flower beds of purple geraniums, decorating the front garden in front of each house. Then, carelessly running along the wide, beautiful avenue that led out of the city from the aristocratic quarter, the breeze suddenly turned cold, hitting last house at the end of this street.
This house was a unique structure. It was small, of such dimensions that it could have contained no more than seven rooms, but massive, made of gray stone, striking in its harsh heaviness and completely extraordinary architecture.
At the bottom, the house had the shape of a narrow rectangle, with its long side facing the street. The walls did not rise directly from the ground, but stood on a stone plinth, which was a full foot longer and wider than their base, so that the entire building rested on it, like an animal on its paws dug deep into the ground. The facade, rising with cold severity on this plinth, one half of it turned into a steeply cut ridge, and the other half ended with a low parapet, which stretched horizontally until it connected with a second similar ridge above the side wall of the house.
From the very first pages of this work, readers are immersed in the dull and frightening atmosphere of a very strange house, which he decided to build for himself and his loved ones main character novel by James Brody. He wanted to live in a real castle, since he claims to be of aristocratic origin, but the size of his dwelling does not at all correspond to real castles, so the house, located on the outskirts of the entire city, looks extremely ridiculous and provokes Brody's fellow citizens, who also live in a Scottish town called Livenford. , only ridicule.
But James himself is simply filled with pride in himself and his name; he is confident that he is directly and fairly closely related to the family of the Duke himself. Brody looks down on all other people, both due to his truly enormous height and because of his contemptuous attitude towards them, he is firmly convinced that he belongs to the category of the chosen ones and everyone else is simply unworthy of communicating with him and his family. The city laughs at his pride, bordering on obsession, but James does not want to notice this, not doubting his own exclusivity.
The Brody family's lifestyle is also different from other families. Everything is subject exclusively to the will, desires and whims of the head of the family; all household members literally tremble before this person and tremble with fear when in his presence. It is enough to remember only the first tea party in this house, shown by the author. Tea in Brody's house is served at the same time every evening, all family members are required to be at the table, not being late for a minute.
James's wife Margaret is busy only with serving her cruel husband as best as possible; he constantly mocks the woman and is even capable of hitting her, but Margaret humbly endures absolutely everything, silently bowing her head. She had long ago lost all ability to resist. home tyrant and thinks only about not angering him once again, fear of James has actually killed her self-esteem, she never even tries to express her own opinion, agreeing with her husband in everything. True, she secretly indulges her favorite, eldest son Matthew, but she does it so that Brody doesn’t know anything. The woman is almost indifferent to her daughters, especially to the eldest of them, Mary.
As for Mary, this girl turns out to be the only person in the house who is able to object to her father, although she also has to overcome fear. Mary firmly insists that her lover Dennis Foyle is not the scoundrel and slacker Mr. Brodie claims. Even the terrible night when James, in a terrible thunderstorm, kicks Mary, who has already gone into labor, out of the house, and the death of the baby does not force the courageous girl to break down; only in the finale of the novel she leaves the family castle in order to continue living together with a worthy and a decent man, Dr. Renwick.
Matthew, the eldest of the children of James and Margaret, is weak-willed and weak-willed; constant fear of his tyrant father from childhood teaches him to lie and pretend, immeasurable mother's love also helps to develop precisely such traits in him. The young man is afraid of his father, but is unable to give up the entertainment to which he was accustomed during his stay in India, where James himself sent him to serve. Matthew uses his already hopelessly ill mother to the very last limit, and after her death he hastily runs away from his father’s house forever, taking Brody’s mistress Nancy with him.
The death of Mrs. Margaret Brodie from a serious illness, which she hid from her husband for a long time out of fear of him, looks as pitiful as her life next to her oppressive husband, who completely broke and suppressed her. The fate of Brody's youngest daughter Nessie is also tragic; the girl has been distinguished by her extraordinary abilities since childhood, teachers at school constantly praise her, and James firmly believes that Nessie will definitely glorify his name by becoming a famous scientist.
After Brody experiences complete disappointment in his older children, he places all his hopes only on his youngest daughter and forces the girl to study without ceasing, intimidating her cruel punishment in the event that she fails to receive the notorious Latt scholarship, which has never yet been awarded to representatives of the fairer sex. Nessie, who has been in awe of her father since childhood, is in a state of constant nervous tension, she is haunted day and night by the fear of failure, and in the end everything ends in tears. A sixteen-year-old girl who failed the scholarship exam, tormented by horror at the upcoming meeting with her father and thinking only about what he will do to her now, decides to commit suicide, believing that this will be the best way out for her.
The novel ends with James Brody losing everyone close to him, except for his mother, who has long fallen into senile insanity and is not interested in anything other than food. His wife and youngest daughter are no longer alive, his son is on the other side of the world, in South America, eldest daughter Mary also does not intend to continue to maintain a relationship with her father. After reading this work, there is no doubt that it was James who became a real killer for his family members; it was his tyranny, boundless cruelty and belief in his own chosenness that led him to complete loneliness and life collapse.
LitLife open book. Tour No. 16.
I’ll say right away that I fully appreciated the talent of the author, which, to my deep shame, I had never even heard of, and I’m very surprised that this work not included in general education program(for many years the program has included the same works, over-exaggerated from all sides, and very reluctantly gives way to other worthy things). Here is the mastery literary language, figurative, apt. Knowledge of the behavioral psychology of people, harmoniously integrated into the era being described and the society living in it.
But my review is not aimed at analyzing the work; it is implicated in personal experiences and emotions. Despite all the merits of this creation, it was very difficult for me to read: because of its authenticity, because of its intertwining with personal memories, recognizing myself and my loved ones in some of the events described.
“I was in prison, in darkness,” she whispered to herself, “and when I came out of it, I was so blinded that I lost my way.”Mary thinks so. And I completely agree with her. A person is capable of doing stupid things, breaking free from strict tutelage and constant pressure. Freedom intoxicates and deprives even very sane people of reason, let alone a girl like Mary. When she disappeared from the pages of the story, it became a little easier for me to read, I was able to distance myself and no longer take everything so personally.
And of course, how can we not say at least a few words about the central figure - Brody. I don’t consider him an absolute evil, because those around him are no less to blame for all the troubles that have happened than he himself. Any emotion - positive or negative - needs constant feeding, otherwise it will suffocate and fade away. His inflated self-esteem, unfounded superiority over others, cruelty and despotism were fueled by his own family and the surrounding society. The spineless wife, resigned to her fate, broken, did not evoke pity in me, because with her behavior and attitude she continued Brody’s work - she crippled the fate of her children. And for me she is not a mother: she who fears for herself more than for the fate of her own child is glad that she escaped punishment, but at what cost. Sorry, but this is really nothing. A grandmother who is ready to do any meanness for the sake of food, a slobbering son, an ingratiating worker. Brody behaved completely differently with his mistress (I observed this personally, how a man who despotic one woman and is ready to lick the feet of another changes).
As for the rest, much has already been written and said.
... something deeply hidden, perverted, felt by everyone who looked closely at the house as ugliness, as a violation of harmony embodied in stone.I only hope that over time this house and its owner will gradually turn into dust. But crippled destinies cannot be corrected and memories cannot be erased.