Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Heredity, Morality, Disease

    After Brand Firmin has given a speech at a riotous drinking party, the narrator, Arthur Pendennis, observes, 'As though spirits (of whom, perhaps, you have read in the columns of this Magazine) approved of his invocation, immense thumps came from above [...]. But the upper thumps were derisory, and came from Mr. Buffers, of the third floor' (284). Fearing that his father was once involved in a secret conspiracy, Philip Firmin asks, 'does wickedness run in the blood?' (292) and reflects, 'Suppose there's no escape for me, and I inherit my doom, as another man does gout or consumption?' (293).

Reprinted:

Thackeray 1862