Marriage and the Gargerys

Marriage and the Gargerys is the first volume of The Gargery Trilogy. It follows The Estella Trilogy where the fortunes of Pip and Estella, their lives, loves, friendships and families were explored from 1840 to 1878, as a sequel to Dickens' Great Expectations. The Gargery family of 1894 are the direct descendants of the blacksmith Joe and his wife Biddy and comprise Pip and his adult children Malcolm and Hannah. Pip's first wife Susanna died of yellow fever and he later marries his earlier love Harriet, but this second marriage is received with truculent hostility by Hannah, though accepted by Malcolm. Marriage brings such tribulations and blessings, and as an estate designed 'for the procreation of children', the physical burden rests on women, and indeed Hannah experiences difficulties in pregnancy that terrify Pip as he lost his eldest son to diphtheria and he cannot countenance the loss of another child.

Parental failures can bring a fragile marriage to the point of break down. Grief determined one hasty marriage, for Margaret was previously engaged to Simon's twin who drowned. Margaret later blames herself for fostering too much independence in her murdered adolescent daughter Frederica, an event which snaps the bonds of trust with her husband Simon. Yet marriages can grapple successfully with physical infirmity. Malcolm loses an eye on the North-West Frontier and his friend Tom Hesketh has a leg amputated there. Hannah has medical training so is fascinated by Tom's wounds and marries him, though such disabilities anticipate marital strains with the challenge of a prosthetic leg, and for Clara, the questionable benefit of a glass eye. Family obligations are fostered in marriage too. Albert Pirrip, Old Pip's son, accepts responsibility for his mother-in-law Nellie as she loses her mind. Margaret is counselled by Simon's mother Honora.
Yet for some marriage is not a matter of romantic love, but the preservation of wealth. An Indian Princess explains to Alec McPherson her lover that the purpose of marriage is wealth preservation and the production of heirs, so neither of their marriages need interfere with their passions and mutual enjoyment, a view not limited to Indian royalty. However such wealth is unknown to the vast majority of married people. A deserted wife who murdered her three starving children becomes a charge of infanticide before Hamish Macdonald, now a High Court Judge whose marriage to Mary is impeccable. Poverty is also widespread for dirt-poor couples in Ireland where Malcolm's wife Clara inherits a large plantation which she sells it to the Jaggers Trust for a pound after the main house is burnt down by a Protestant gang. Clara and the Trust seek to bring the tenants, often married with large families, out of their condition.

Pip's temporary management of this Irish venture frightens and depresses Harriet, a man's work often being a source of marriage tension. She hates the idea ...