The Peppered MothBessie Bawtry is a young girl living in the early 1900s in Breaseborough, 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 be able to 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 later, Bessie's granddaughter, Faro Gaulden, 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 unexplained resurgence. "The Peppered Moth" is a brilliantly conceived novel, full of irony, sadness, and humor. |
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Page 13
... Bert Bawtry . And , all things con- sidered , 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 tried . They were respectable ...
... Bert Bawtry . And , all things con- sidered , 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 tried . They were respectable ...
Page 25
... Bert Bawtry alone had ventured far into the past , and he had chosen well , for the bed was an object of virtue . ( It is a pity Bert did not live to see The Antiques Roadshow . He would have enjoyed it . He was a man of curious ...
... Bert Bawtry alone had ventured far into the past , and he had chosen well , for the bed was an object of virtue . ( It is a pity Bert did not live to see The Antiques Roadshow . He would have enjoyed it . He was a man of curious ...
Page 116
... Bert and Ellen's interest was not astronomical . The eclipse happened to coincide with their wedding anniversary , and it happened to reach totality in their own county of Yorkshire , which made it seem special . The eclipse had been ...
... Bert and Ellen's interest was not astronomical . The eclipse happened to coincide with their wedding anniversary , and it happened to reach totality in their own county of Yorkshire , which made it seem special . The eclipse had been ...
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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 hair Hammervale happy Highcross Holderfield Jenny Pargiter Joe Barron knew listened lived look Lyme Regis married Miss Heald mother never Nick Gaulden Nick's night Northam once peppered moth Peter Cudworth ring Robert and Chrissie Rose & Rose round Rowena says Faro seemed 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