William Makepeace Thackeray achieved his goal of making history familiar to his readers in The History of Henry Esmond. He established a model for historical fiction, using true occurrences as the basis of his novel in a way never done before. While others had incorporated historical events into their fiction, Thackeray constructed his novel in such a way that it depended on the events. Framed by the final days of Stuart rule, the plot introduces a young, intelligent boy named Henry Esmond, maturing in Castlewood House, a structure symbolically filled with secret passageways. But this is no Gothic novel, as Henry is familiar with each mysterious corner of the house, representing the self-knowledge and realization that will become crucial to his development. A supposed orphan, his search for self-identity can represent that of every human unsure of his or her place in the world. His ability to shape his own identity independent of outside forces allows Thackeray to suggest that individuals can find fulfillment on their own.

Henry Esmond is supposedly the illegitimate son of the third viscount Castlewood. His early years prove lonely as he matures in a household headed by Lady Castlewood, once famous for her great beauty but now pitifully using makeup to recover that beauty. Her sad grasping after past glory symbolizes the Stuart rule. Henry, also called Harry, spends part of his time studying Latin and training in swordplay with the Jesuit Father Holt. Henry’s loneliness is relieved when his cousin, Francis Esmond, inherits the title and moves into Castlewood, along with his lovely young wife, Rachel. Henry becomes fond of their children, Frank and Beatrix, and soon is devoted to the entire family, who treat him with a kindness he has never experienced. Henry is especially fond of Rachel, and he develops a lifelong loyalty to her. He admires her worship of the viscount, but Francis finds it oppressive and relieves his passions with other women in London. Ironically, Henry mars Rachel’s beauty when he unwittingly introduces smallpox to the household. Despite the dulling of her appearance, Rachel is still attractive, and the viscount becomes jealous of the attentions of Lord Mohun to his wife. He foolishly challenges Mohun to a duel and is mortally wounded. Henry, who had tried to stand in for Francis, is heartbroken. On his deathbed, Francis confesses that Henry was actually the legitimate son of Viscount Thomas and should have inherited the title and the estate. Francis supplies a paper that proves him a usurper, but Henry burns the paper; he wants young Frank to become the next viscount. Henry’s move represents an incredible sacrifice. While he gives up his title, he demonstrates honorable behavior that an aristocratic title alone cannot give an individual.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Because Henry took part in the duel, he is imprisoned, dangerously ill from a wound. Blaming Henry for the death of her husband, Rachel forbids him to ever visit her family. Despair sets in, but then Henry receives a request for him to visit Lady Castlewood, his father’s widow, where she now lives in Chelsey. She establishes a stronger relationship with Henry, divining that he knows his true parentage. Admiring his strength of character, she uses her influence to help “Son Esmond,” as she refers to him, procure an ensign’s commission. Henry distinguishes himself in service and advances to Colonel, serving General Webb, to whom he devotes himself as an aide. In this section of the book, critics note Henry’s prioritizing devotion to Webb over that to the duke of Marlborough is likely based on Thackeray’s own family history, as one of his ancestors served Webb, who reportedly quarreled with the duke.

Henry encounters the teacher of his youth, Father Holt, who explains that Viscount Castlewood had an affair with his mother, a Flemish daughter of a weaver, then deserted her to a convent, where she died, leaving Henry to be raised by his father. He visits her grave, gaining further ground in his quest for self-identity.

Henry again encounters Rachel in Winchester Cathedral, and they resume their former relationship. Despite their eight-year age difference, Henry could love Rachel, but then he meets the now-beautiful 16-year-old Beatrix, whom he had protected as a youth. Henry spends 10 years attempting to convince her to marry him, but she finds him too common as a soldier and too serious. Her brother, Frank, now the viscount as Henry had planned, remains a fine young sportsman and swordsman. He falls in love with a Catholic Dutch woman while on campaign with Henry and converts to the religion his family had abandoned long ago for political reasons. Henry occupies himself in a new literary relationship with true-life figure English essayist Joseph Addison (1672–1719), supposedly helping him compose his famous poem “The Campaign” (1704), which celebrates England’s victory at Blenheim.

After a number of engagements, Beatrix accepts betrothal to the much older and honorable duke of Hamilton, with Henry faithfully continuing to support her. Henry chooses from the inheritance of Lady Castlewood a lovely diamond necklace to present to Beatrix as a wedding gift. It represents a sacrifice, as his inheritance proved modest, although sufficient to his nonmaterialistic lifestyle. It also symbolizes the value in which he holds Beatrix as a symbol of an ideal to which he aspires. When the duke protests a gift of such value from a bastard false aristocrat, Rachel angrily explains Henry’s legitimacy. Startled by that fact, Beatrix wishes she had accepted Henry’s marriage proposal.

Beatrix’s future is shattered when Henry’s old nemesis, Lord Mohun, kills the duke on the evening of the wedding. Mohun also dies, removing one threat from Henry’s life. Perceiving a final opportunity to gain Beatrix’s hand, Henry decides to join a restoration plot in an attempt to restore James Edward Stuart, the “Pretender,” to the throne in place of Queen Anne. Frank also served the Pretender, or Prince, and allowed him to return to Lady Castlewood’s London home, where the pretender impersonates Viscount Castlewood. He gains an interview with his sister, the queen, which all hope will lead to her naming him her successor as she lies ill and dying. Henry is devastated when the prince becomes enthralled with Beatrix and orders her to Castlewood. Henry’s fascination with Beatrix ends, and he destroys before the prince the papers that prove his birth. In a dramatic gesture that at last ends his conflict over identity, he breaks his sword, denounces the Stuart line, and is joined by the equally disillusioned Frank. As the two devoted friends return to London, they hear that George of Hanover has been named king, following Anne’s death. Beatrix follows the Pretender to France, and Henry at last acts on his lifelong devotion to Rachel and marries her. Sadly taking leave of Frank, the couple sails for America, both literally and symbolically beginning a new life there at the Castlewood they build in Virginia. Henry Esmond at last makes his own identity, free from false titles and concerns.

The novel established Thackeray’s reputation as one of the finest historical fiction writers, as he had to sustain an 18th-century style throughout his pseudo-autobiography. He not only faithfully represents the facts of the era that acts as his focus, he also shapes a fascinating psychological tale, one of the first to look at the internal hauntings of memory, favored over outward Gothic hauntings. Thackeray’s own experience of a lack of identity as a child influences his character shaping of Esmond. He obtained his goal of creating a true man, in the style of Henry Fielding, that had frustrated him in The History of Pendennis (1850). Autobiographical aspects contained in the novel’s romance strengthen Thackeray’s resolve in contrasting his two heroines, the lively clever Beatrix with the compliant Rachel, as were his own true-life loves, his wife and Mrs. Brookfield. However, he does not give Henry a wife to reject, and he avoids the cloying expected conclusion of Henry marrying Beatrix. Instead, he chooses the older widow, a fact that bothered some contemporary readers, likely due to its taint of incest, as Rachel had helped to raise Henry when he was a youth. Such contrast with the romantic tradition of historical fiction helped bolster his bid for reality in fiction.

Analysis of William Makepeace Thackeray’s Novels

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gilbert, E. L. William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, and Henry Esmond. New York: Monarch Press, 1965.
Ray, Gordon. The Buried Life: A Study of the Relation Between Thackeray’s Fiction and His Personal History. Darby, Pa.: Arden Library, 1979.