XXXVII: Rewards explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Literary Marketplace

  The chapter contrasts the fates of writers: Jasper Milvain rises through strategic social connections and editorship offers, while Alfred Yule and Marian Yule are forced out of the literary world due to blindness and poverty.

• Poverty and Class

  Alfred Yule's family is reduced to desperation, saved only by a charity-like position; Jasper and Amy's lavish dinner party highlights the class divide between successful and struggling writers.

• Marriage and Money

  Jasper's marriage to Amy is portrayed as a strategic alliance that aids his career; Dora's marriage to Whelpdale is initially opposed by Jasper for lacking social advantage.

• Ambition and Failure

  Jasper's ambition is rewarded with an editorship offer, while Alfred Yule's career ends in blindness and obscurity; the chapter explicitly contrasts success with moral desert.

Characters to notice

• Alfred Yule

  Undergoes a failed cataract operation, becomes totally blind, and falls into debility and premature old age; dies in the country, blind and fallen on evil days.

• Marian Yule

  Suffers from nervous disorders and cannot produce enough literary work; accepts a position as assistant in a provincial public library to support her parents.

• Jasper Milvain

  Now married to Amy Reardon, hosts a dinner party, learns of Alfred Yule's death, and receives an offer to edit The Current; writes a panegyric on Clement Fadge.

• Amy Reardon

  Now Mrs. Milvain, described as a perfectly-built woman with queenly grace; hosts a dinner party and tells an anecdote about Fadge.

• Dora Milvain

  Marries Whelpdale despite Jasper's objections; initially refuses to meet Amy but later compromises.

• Whelpdale

  Marries Dora Milvain; is frantic with exultation and reflects on the contrast between his happiness and the fates of Biffen and Reardon.

• Jedwood

  Publisher who arranges for Marian Yule to obtain a position as assistant in a provincial public library.

• Clement Fadge

  Featured as the week's Celebrity in The West End; rumored to be leaving The Current; Jasper writes a panegyric on him.

Key passages

• “When the fitting moment arrived, Alfred Yule underwent an operation for cataract, and it was believed at first that the result would be favourable. This hope had but short duration; though the utmost prudence was exercised, evil symptoms declared themselves, and in a few months’ time all prospect of restoring his vision was at an end.”

  Alfred Yule's cataract surgery initially seemed successful, but complications soon arose, and within months he became permanently blind.

  This marks the beginning of Yule's decline and the family's desperate situation.

• “Mr. Jedwood had a brother who was the director of a public library in a provincial town, and by this means he was enabled to offer Marian Yule a place as assistant in that institution; she would receive seventy-five pounds a year, and thus, adding her own income, would be able to put her parents beyond the reach of want.”

  Through his brother, publisher Jedwood secured Marian a job as a library assistant for £75 a year, which combined with her own income would support her parents.

  This rescue saves the Yule family from destitution but removes them from the literary world.

• “By an interesting coincidence, it was on the day of this departure that there appeared a number of The West End in which the place of honour, that of the week’s Celebrity, was occupied by Clement Fadge. A coloured portrait of this illustrious man challenged the admiration of all who had literary tastes, and two columns of panegyric recorded his career for the encouragement of aspiring youth. This article, of course unsigned, came from the pen of Jasper Milvain.”

  On the same day the Yules left London, The West End featured Clement Fadge as its Celebrity of the Week, with a flattering article written anonymously by Jasper Milvain.

  This juxtaposition highlights the contrast between the struggling Yules and the successful literary establishment.

• “Whelpdale will never be a man of any note. A good fellow, I admit, but borné in all senses. Let me impress upon you, my dear girl, that I have a future before me, and that there is no reason—with your charm of person and mind—why you should not marry brilliantly.”

  Jasper tells Dora that Whelpdale is too limited to achieve distinction and that she could marry someone more socially prominent given her own qualities.

  Jasper's objection reveals his obsession with social advancement and his view of marriage as a career move.

• “Think of the days when I all but starved in my Albany Street garret, scarcely better off than poor, dear old Biffen! Why should I have come to this, and Biffen have poisoned himself in despair? He was a thousand times a better and cleverer fellow than I. And poor old Reardon, dead in misery! Could I for a moment compare with him?”

  Whelpdale reflects on his past poverty and questions why he succeeded while better men like Biffen and Reardon failed and died in misery.

  This speech underscores the theme that success is unrelated to moral worth or talent.

• “My dear fellow, compose yourself and be logical. In the first place, success has nothing whatever to do with moral deserts; and then, both Reardon and Biffen were hopelessly unpractical.”

  Jasper calmly tells Whelpdale that success is not based on merit and that Reardon and Biffen lacked practical skills.

  Jasper's cold pragmatism encapsulates the novel's critique of the literary marketplace.