The Peppered MothThe prize-winning author of The Dark Flood Rises offers an “absorbing” portrait of three generations of women—inspired by her own family (The New York Times Book Review). In the early 1900s, young Bessie Bawtry grows up in a mining town in South Yorkshire, England. Unusually gifted, she longs to escape a life burdened by unquestioned tradition. She studies patiently, dreaming of the day when she will take the entrance exam for Cambridge and leave her narrow world. A generation later, Bessie’s daughter Chrissie feels a similar impulse to expand her horizons, which she in turn passes on to her own daughter. Nearly a century after that, Bessie’s granddaughter finds herself listening to a lecture on genetics and biological determinism. She has returned to Breaseborough and wonders at the families who remained in the humble little town where Bessie grew up. Confronted with what would have been her life had her grandmother stayed, she finds herself faced with difficult questions. Is she really so different from the plain South Yorkshire locals? As she soon learns, the past has a way of reasserting itself—not unlike the peppered moth that was once thought to be nearing extinction but is now enjoying a sudden and unexplained resurgence. With The Peppered Moth, the acclaimed author of The Seven Sisters conjures a captivating work of semi-fiction, grappling with her memory of her own mother and the indelible mark of family and heredity. |
From inside the book
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... Bawtry's mother Ellen did not know how to play and did not understand children. She did not like children, as a class. Nobody had played with her when she was a child, for in those days childhood had hardly been invented, and now she ...
... Bawtry's mother Ellen did not know how to play and did not understand children. She did not like children, as a class. Nobody had played with her when she was a child, for in those days childhood had hardly been invented, and now she ...
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... Ellen Bawtry considered herself lucky in Bert Bawtry. And, all things considered, she was. She had married late, and cautiously, and she was satisfied with what she had got. Ellen and Bert Bawtry were not bad people or bad parents. They ...
... Ellen Bawtry considered herself lucky in Bert Bawtry. And, all things considered, she was. She had married late, and cautiously, and she was satisfied with what she had got. Ellen and Bert Bawtry were not bad people or bad parents. They ...
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... Bawtry did not let Bessie play on the street. It was more dangerous out there than any of them knew, than any of them could have known. Against known dangers, Ellen Bawtry warned and protected her daughters. The world beyond the wooden ...
... Bawtry did not let Bessie play on the street. It was more dangerous out there than any of them knew, than any of them could have known. Against known dangers, Ellen Bawtry warned and protected her daughters. The world beyond the wooden ...
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... Ellen and Bessie between them soon put a stop to that. Bessie had decided that she was the most important member of ... Bawtry prayed for acceleration, before she even knew what she was praying for, and in the end she got it. Whether she ...
... Ellen and Bessie between them soon put a stop to that. Bessie had decided that she was the most important member of ... Bawtry prayed for acceleration, before she even knew what she was praying for, and in the end she got it. Whether she ...
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... Bawtry, and Bessie was thought to return his admiration. Nothing serious, of course—they were too young for that ... Ellen, she was thin, not stout: she was a bony, upright figure, and she sat forward on the edge of the chair, her back ...
... Bawtry, and Bessie was thought to return his admiration. Nothing serious, of course—they were too young for that ... Ellen, she was thin, not stout: she was a bony, upright figure, and she sat forward on the edge of the chair, her back ...
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Common terms and phrases
Auntie Dora babies Bert Bessie Barron Bessie Bawtry Bessie's boys Breasebor Breaseborough Cambridge Chrissie's coal Cotterhall dark daugh daughter dead death Donald Sinclair Dora's Dr Hawthorn earth Edith Sitwell Ellen Bawtry eyes Faro Gaulden Faro's father Fiona George Bellew Georgette Heyer Gertrude Wadsworth girl glass Hammervale happy Highcross Holderfield Jenny Pargiter Joe Barron knew listened live look Lyme Regis married Miss Heald mother never Nick Gaulden Nick's night Northam once peppered moth Peter Cudworth ring Robert and Chrissie Rose round Rowena says Faro Sebastian seemed sister sister Dora Slotton Road smell South Yorkshire Spanish flu stare Stella Steve Nieman story sure T. S. Eliot tell thing thought tried waiting waste watch woman women wonder young