Introduction
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is a detective story (arguably the first) about a mysterious gem, told in the form of a series of narratives by different writers. One of these is Gabriel Betteredge, who digresses into a reminiscence about his bachelor days and how he met his future wife. At the time, he had just found a very comfortable position as bailiff to Sir John and Lady Julia Verinder.
WELL, there I was in clover, you will say. Placed in a position of trust and honour, with a little cottage of my own to live in, with my rounds on the estate to occupy me in the morning, and my accounts in the afternoon, and my pipe and my Robinson Crusoe in the evening — what more could I possibly want to make me happy? Remember what Adam wanted when he was alone in the Garden of Eden; and if you don’t blame it in Adam, don’t blame it in me.
The woman I fixed my eye on, was the woman who kept house for me at my cottage. Her name was Selina Goby. I agree with the late William Cobbett about picking a wife. See that she chews her food well and sets her foot down firmly on the ground when she walks, and you’re all right.* Selina Goby was all right in both these respects, which was one reason for marrying her. I had another reason, likewise, entirely of my own discovering.
* A memorable if somewhat oversimplified summary of the counsel given by William Cobbett MP (1763-1835) in Advice to Young Men, and (Incidentally) to Young Women, in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life (1830). William liked a woman who stepped out like she meant business, and ate her meals in the same manner. ‘Quick at meals, quick at work,’ he quotes proverbially, and ‘I do not like, and I never liked, your sauntering, soft stepping girls’. He thought the girls of Lancashire and Sussex the prettiest in England, but more important than anything else was warmth. “Had I to live my life over again, give me the warmth,” he said, “and I will stand my chance as to the rest.” Cobbett’s musings were down-to-earth and occasionally touching, based as they were on his own long and happy marriage to a servant girl.
Précis
In Wilkie Collins’s novel ‘The Moonstone’, narrator Gabriel Betteredge recalled his decision to get married, completing (so he hoped) his happiness now that he had a secure position as bailiff to Lady Verinder. The woman he selected was Selina Goby, who fulfilled his simple criteria for a life partner, and also qualified in one very special way. (57 / 60 words)
In Wilkie Collins’s novel ‘The Moonstone’, narrator Gabriel Betteredge recalled his decision to get married, completing (so he hoped) his happiness now that he had a secure position as bailiff to Lady Verinder. The woman he selected was Selina Goby, who fulfilled his simple criteria for a life partner, and also qualified in one very special way.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: besides, despite, just, not, since, unless, until, whether.
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