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summary: =Folks= – Harriet Frean and parents (father Hilton is a writer for The Spectator and writes nonfic); she makes four people miserable and kills a . . .

Folks

• Harriet Frean and parents (father Hilton is a writer for The Spectator and writes nonfic); she makes four people miserable and kills a baby out of her self-sacrifice
• Priscilla Heaven: jealous friend
• Robin Lethbridge: Priscilla’s fiance, who falls in love with Harriet, who won’t marry him b/c she’s too moral, which ends up ruining his life, Priscilla’s, his next wife’s, as well as hers
• Maggie, the maid, whose baby dies after Harriet throws them out b/c of the baby
• The Hancocks: neighboring family, ruined by her father’s bad investments; the girl Connie is a friend
• Her friends, the witty Lizzy and the gentle Sarah
• The new neighbors: daughter Dorothy repulses Harriet’s friendship

Themes

• Duty: Victorian principles of self-sacrifice ruin her (her mother’s cancer, without operation for fear of Harriet’s money; her mother’s and her own wanting to move to the seaside ruined by mutual worries; Harriet’s sacrifice of love makes everyone unhappy)
• New parenthood: they don’t forbid, but they guilt-trip, and it’s more effective and cruel
• Victorian crisis of faith books (Darwin, Spencer) versus light reading novels

Extra Notes

• Marx
  • Attitude towards house isn’t possessive until she creates a garden and plants sweetpeas (work leads to possession)
  • Father’s book is The Social Order, with a representative-less government, people ruling themselves
  • Robin’s niece says that he “spent his moral capital” by taking care of Priscilla and now has no generosity left for anyone