Crome Yellow · Chapter
XIII explained
Henry Wimbush finishes printing his History of Crome and reads an episode about Sir Hercules Lapith, a dwarf baronet who marries the diminutive Filomena and faces tragedy with his giant son Ferdinando.
What happens
Henry Wimbush finishes printing his History of Crome and reads an episode about Sir Hercules Lapith, a dwarf baronet who marries the diminutive Filomena and faces tragedy with his giant son Ferdinando.
Themes in this chapter
Eccentricity and Aristocracy
Sir Hercules Lapith's life as a dwarf baronet, his dwarf household, and his rabbit-hunting with pug dogs exemplify aristocratic eccentricity.
Love and Sexual Repression
Hercules's humiliation in love leads to a lifelong fear of rejection, shaping his choice of a dwarf wife.
Time and Transience
Henry Wimbush's thirty-year project of writing and printing the History underscores the passage of time and the desire to preserve the past.
Characters to notice
- Henry Wimbush
Finishes printing his History of Crome and reads an episode aloud to the party.
- Anne
Exclaims upon hearing the History is finished.
- Denis
Asks if they may read the History.
- Gombauld
Inquires about the amusing or tragic content of the family history.
- Priscilla Wimbush
Scorns the Lapiths as unadventurous and yawns before the reading.
- Mr. Scogan
Remarks that his own family history would not exist after the second generation.
- Jenny Mullion
Emerges from her interior world to ask what was said, then retreats.
- Hercules Lapith
The dwarf baronet whose story is read; he marries Filomena and later confronts his giant son.
Key passages
“Today I have finished the printing of my History of Crome. I helped to set up the type of the last page this evening.”
Henry announces that he has just completed printing his long-awaited History of Crome.
This marks the culmination of a thirty-year project.
“It has taken me nearly thirty years. Twenty-five years of writing and nearly four of printing. And now it's finished—the whole chronicle, from Sir Ferdinando Lapith's birth to the death of my father William Wimbush—more than three centuries and a half: a history of Crome, written at Crome, and printed at Crome by my own press.”
Henry explains the decades-long effort behind his comprehensive family history.
Emphasizes the personal and local nature of the work.
“I can only think of two suicides, one violent death, four or perhaps five broken hearts, and half a dozen little blots on the scutcheon in the way of misalliances, seductions, natural children, and the like. No, on the whole, it's a placid and uneventful record.”
Henry summarizes the family history as containing only a few tragedies and scandals.
Sets up the contrast with the more dramatic episode he will read.