Mr. Meeson's Will

Mr. Meeson's Will by H. Rider Haggard

H. Rider Haggard's Mr. Meeson's Will opens at the vast Birmingham publishing house of Meeson, Addison, and Roscoe, run with iron ruthlessness by Jonathan Meeson. Young novelist Augusta Smithers, author of the bestselling "Jemima's Vow," comes to Meeson demanding fairer payment beyond the meager fifty pounds and paltry translation-rights cheque she was contractually bound to accept. Meeson refuses and accuses her of ingratitude. His nephew Eustace Meeson, present in the office, openly sides with Augusta, denouncing his uncle's exploitative business practices. Enraged at being contradicted, Meeson disowns Eustace on the spot, throws him out, and rushes to his lawyer, Mr. Todd, to tear up his existing will and draft a new one leaving his entire two-million-pound fortune to his partners Addison and Roscoe instead of his nephew. Meanwhile, Augusta returns home to find her small sister Jeannie, whom she has been struggling to support since their parents' deaths, gravely ill and in need of money for a warmer climate that Augusta cannot afford. That night Jeannie dies. Eustace, having quarreled with his uncle partly on Augusta's behalf, calls on her afterward, witnesses her grief, and falls in love with her, though he arrives too late to help. With nothing left in England and bound by her punitive publishing contract, Augusta decides to emigrate to New Zealand to stay with a cousin, departing without leaving Eustace her address. Aboard the steamship Kangaroo, Augusta unexpectedly encounters Mr. Meeson himself, also traveling toward New Zealand and Australia on business. She publicly repudiates him before the ship's aristocratic passengers, including Lord and Lady Holmhurst (Holmhurst is the incoming colonial governor), who befriend her warmly once they learn of Meeson's mistreatment of her. Meeson is increasingly ostracized by fellow passengers, including a young landowner named Tombey, who proposes marriage to Augusta; she gently refuses him, her heart already inclined toward Eustace. Then disaster strikes: in the night the Kangaroo collides with an unlit whaling ship and begins sinking rapidly. In the chaos, Augusta rescues Lady Holmhurst's young son Dick after his nurse abandons him, while Lady Holmhurst herself escapes in an early lifeboat. Amid a scene of panic, violence, and drowning, Augusta, Dick, two sailors (Bill and Johnnie), and Meeson himself escape in a small boat, with Meeson only hauled aboard after Augusta insists. The Kangaroo sinks with the loss of nearly all aboard. The survivors reach the desolate, uninhabited Kerguelen Land, where they shelter in ruined huts. Meeson, having caught a fatal chill, becomes consumed with remorse over disinheriting Eustace and resolves to make a new will, but the party has no paper, pen, or ink. Augusta ingeniously proposes that the will be tattooed instead. Using a fishbone, cuttlefish ink, and Bill's tattooing skill, Meeson dictates a nine-word will leaving everything to Eustace, which is tattooed onto Augusta's own shoulders and back, properly signed and witnessed by Meeson, Bill, and Johnnie. Meeson dies shortly afterward, tormented by delirious visions of his mistreated authors and employees. The two sailors subsequently drown after a drunken accident, leaving Augusta alone with Dick. Just as hope is nearly exhausted, an American whaling ship, the Harpoon, rescues Augusta and Dick. During the voyage home, Augusta reads a newspaper report revealing that probate has already been granted on Meeson's earlier will (leaving everything to Addison and Roscoe), seemingly rendering her tattooed will's sacrifice pointless. Landing in England to a sensational public reception, Augusta is reunited with the widowed Lady Holmhurst, and Eustace rushes to meet her train. The two confess their love, and Augusta reveals the tattooed will on her shoulders to him. Eustace consults his friends, the twin brothers John and James Short (a solicitor and a barrister), about contesting the earlier probate. James Short delivers a confident, if long-winded, legal opinion that the tattooed document is a valid will under the Wills Act and that proceedings should be brought to revoke the existing probate and grant letters of administration with the will annexed in Eustace's favor.

By H. Rider Haggard · First published 1888 · Genre: Adventure, Legal Drama, Romance · 23 chapters · 80,148 words

First lines

Everybody who has any connection with Birmingham will be acquainted with the vast publishing establishment still known by the short title of "Meeson's," which is perhaps the most remarkable institution of the sort in Europe. There are-or rather there were, at the date of the beginning of this history-three partners in Meeson's-Meeson himself, the managing partner; Mr. Addison, and Mr. Roscoe-and people in Birmingham used to say that there were others interested in the affair, for Meeson's was a "company" (limited).

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Victorian Fiction · Social Commentary · Class Satire · Economic Critique · Family Drama · Inheritance Novel · Moral Allegory · Satirical Comedy · English Literature · 19th Century Literature · Realism · Social Realism

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