The Newcomes. Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family by William Makepeace Thackeray. Short summary

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The author argues that there are no completely virtuous and criminal people, citing the example of the Newcome family, where some relatives both steal from others and care for them at the same time.

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In «Overture,» the author argues that there are no people who are completely vicious or virtuous.

Colonel Newcom has sent his son Clive from India to London to visit relatives. The boy’s paternal uncles, the bankers Hobson and Brien, became interested in their nephew after their brother was lauded in the newspapers for his exploits. Clive’s relatives on his late mother’s side, the Hanimans, are nice people. His uncle gathers people in the chapel for sermons, and he also rents out the chapel basement as a wine warehouse.

Clive falls in love with his cousin Ethel, but she is after a rich groom. She is driven to it by her grandmother, Mrs. Q. Clive decides to become an artist. His father returned from India with his friend Binny. When he broke his leg, his in-laws, Mrs. Mackenzie and her daughter Rosie, arrived.

The colonel, instigated by his brothers, invests his savings in an unreliable bank and goes bankrupt. Ethel has no luck with suitors. Her grandmother and mother die. She changes and takes Clive’s advances differently.

He was married to Rosie, but is widowed. Ethel helps him raise the child.