Riceyman Steps · Chapter
Riceyman Steps explained
On an autumn afternoon in 1919, a hatless, limping man in his forties ascends Riceyman Steps in Clerkenwell, stopping on the half-landing to observe the bustling industrial scene below.
What happens
On an autumn afternoon in 1919, a hatless, limping man in his forties ascends Riceyman Steps in Clerkenwell, stopping on the half-landing to observe the bustling industrial scene below. He is secretly watching a confectioner's shop where a woman who has begun to inflame him works. He dreams of sharing with her his romantic vision of Clerkenwell's history, from its green springs and nunneries to Nell Gwynn's palace. When rain falls, he follows a potential customer into his own secondhand bookshop.
Themes in this chapter
Urban Decay and Industrial London
The chapter vividly depicts Clerkenwell as a 'hell of noise and dust and dirt' with tramcars, lorries, and the Underground Railway, contrasting its historical pastoral past with its modern industrial squalor.
The Past and Memory
Henry dreams of sharing Clerkenwell's history—its medicinal springs, nunneries, and Nell Gwynn's palace—with the woman, showing his romantic attachment to the past.
Characters to notice
- Henry Earlforward
The hatless, limping man ascending Riceyman Steps; owner of the secondhand bookshop; secretly observing the woman in the confectioner's shop.
- Violet Earlforward
The woman in the confectioner's shop who has begun to inflame Henry; a widow, no longer young.
Key passages
“A man interested in a strange woman acquires one equine attribute—he can look in two directions at once.”
A man fascinated by a woman he doesn't know gains the ability to watch two things simultaneously, like a horse.
Describes Henry's covert observation of the confectioner's shop while pretending to gaze at the street.
“He dreamed that one day he would share with her sympathetic soul his own vision of this wonderful Clerkenwell in which he lived and she now lived.”
He imagined that someday he would reveal to her his romanticized view of Clerkenwell, where they both reside.
Reveals Henry's fantasy of connecting with the woman through his love of local history.