The Prophet's Mantle

The Prophet's Mantle by Edith Nesbit

The text supplied is only the first several chapters of "The Prophet's Mantle" (through roughly the middle of the novel), so this synopsis covers only what appears in it. "The Prophet's Mantle" by Edith Nesbit opens at Thornsett Edge in Derbyshire, where the millowner Richard Ferrier lies dying. Anxious that his two sons, Richard ("Dick") and Roland, have grown rivalrous and estranged, the old man extracts promises from each to stay friends, then has the solicitor Mr Gates draw up a codicil: the brothers must jointly run Thornsett Mill for twenty-one years, or if they quarrel and separate, the money is held for ten years and then forfeited to the Manchester Infirmary. He dies that night with Dick at his bedside. Both brothers are drawn to Clare Stanley, a pretty, headstrong young woman recently returned from school to Aspinshaw, near Firth Vale. Village gossip also links Roland to Alice Hatfield, the millworkers' daughter and the brothers' childhood foster-sister, who vanished from home under a cloud months earlier. In London, Clare and her father are rescued from runaway carriage horses by Count Michael Litvinoff, a Russian exile, Nihilist, and author of the banned pamphlet "A Prophetic Vision," who cultivates the acquaintance deliberately. He charms the Stanleys, befriends both Ferrier brothers, and addresses a Radical club in Soho, describing Russian oppression and revolutionary hope with great oratorical power, admitting authorship of the pamphlet before the crowd. Unknown to the young Englishmen, another exile, the ascetic and quietly compelling Petrovitch, watches Litvinoff's dealings with suspicion, noting that the "Prophet's Mantle" (revolutionary reputation) sits well on him despite his wealthy, self-interested habits. Dick chances upon Alice, now impoverished and doing tailoring work in London, and learns she left home in shame over an unnamed man, refusing to say who. Suspecting Roland is responsible, Dick's jealousy over Clare and moral outrage combine; he follows Roland to Alice's lodgings, and the brothers have a bitter confrontation on the stairs, each accusing the other, ending in Roland's declaring they must never speak again. Dick, reckless with anger and grief, tells Clare of Roland's supposed guilt and half-declares his own love before she rebuffs him; he then instructs Gates to begin dissolving the partnership per the will, forfeiting the family fortune. Meanwhile Alice, alone, pregnant, and destitute under an assumed name ("Mrs Litvinoff"), nearly drowns herself off Blackfriars Bridge but is saved by a kindly pavior, Toomey, who hands her into the care of Petrovitch. Petrovitch questions her sympathetically and learns her story: she had been persuaded by a lover (evidently the real Count Litvinoff, from her account and the inscribed book of Swinburne's poems she owns) to live with him unmarried, on Nihilist principles rejecting legal marriage, but left him out of conscience; he has not found her since. Petrovitch arranges lodging for her with the Toomeys and financial help, partly using money he cleverly extracts from Litvinoff himself (via the intermediary Hirsch) without revealing whose need it serves. Litvinoff attempts to smooth over the Ferrier brothers' quarrel, questioning each and subtly stoking suspicion that Dick's hostility stems from rivalry over Clare; this backfires into an angry exchange with Dick. Clare, meanwhile, attends a Socialist society meeting where Petrovitch's speech profoundly affects her thinking, and Litvinoff notes his workmen contacts, including Alice's father John Hatfield, still ignorant of his own connection to the girl's ruin. Dick returns alone to Derbyshire, formally sets in motion the closing of the mill, and visits his father's grave. Litvinoff, invited by Roland, arrives at Thornsett Edge for Christmas, encountering Hatfield en route and hearing his grievances without revealing his own guilt. Arriving at Aspinshaw with Roland, the two men hear a gunshot and a woman's scream from the garden, and rush through the hedge — at which point the given text breaks off.

By Edith Nesbit · First published 1885 · Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Children's Literature · 32 chapters · 112,458 words

First lines

The light was fading among the Derbyshire hills. The trees, now almost bare, were stirred by the fretful wind into what seemed like a passionate wail for their own lost loveliness, and on the wide bare stretch of moorland behind the house the strange weird cry of the plovers sounded like a dirge over the dead summer. The sharp, intermittent rain had beaten all the beauty out of the few late autumn flowers in the garden, and it was tender of the twilight to hasten to deepen into a darkness heavy enough to hide such a grey desolate picture.

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The Prophet's Mantle is listed on Textopian as a novel by Edith Nesbit, dated 1885 CE.

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Fantasy · Adventure · Children's Literature · Classic · British Literature · Victorian Era · Religion · Spirituality · Prophesy · Mystery · Family · Friendship

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