Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Race, Ethnology, Medical Practitioners, Status, Class, Mental Illness, Gender

    The narrator, Arthur Pendennis, comments that the 'stingy black Prince' Grenville Woolcomb has 'a dark complexion, and hair so very black and curly, that I really almost think in some of the Southern States of America he would be likely to meet with rudeness in a railway car. But in England we know better. In England Grenville Woolcomb is a man and a brother' (389). However, Philip Firmin soon compares his facial characteristics with those of 'baboons' and 'chimpanzee[s]' (392). Also remarks that 'A young doctor's son, with a thousand a year for a fortune, may be considered a catch in some circles, but not, vous concevez, in the upper regions of society' (390). Describes Caroline Gann's grief for her dead child as 'insanity, and fever, and struggle—ah! who knows how dreadful?', although 'George Brand Firmin, Esq., M.D.' suggests that in 'such cases of mania [...] women [...] will often cherish them for years after they appear to have passed away' (401).

Reprinted:

Thackeray 1862