Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der Engel im Haus
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who enjoy love poems, Victorian family life, small domestic scenes and verse that tells a story with warmth and humour, and anyone curious how a poet once praised marriage.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
What if the best subject for a poem is an ordinary English courtship? In The Angel in the House, Coventry Patmore tells the love story of Felix Vaughan and Honoria Churchill in Salisbury. It comes in short rhymed cantos, each with small poems before it. You get a young man's nerves, a family tea table and a bold claim about marriage. The tale begins in a cathedral close, where Felix returns after six years away.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A visitor returns to the Cathedral CloseFree
- 2Honoria stands out among three sisters
- 3Violets bring hope before he asks the Dean
- 4Prayer and a dance teach him restraint
- 5The engagement tests him with idleness and fear
- 6Small gifts carry feelings he cannot speak
- 7Marriage is honoured as a school of love
Punkt 1 von 7
A visitor returns to the Cathedral Close
The poem opens with a small frame story. A poet named Vaughan walks with his wife on their eighth wedding anniversary, and he tells her what he will sing about. He passes over King Arthur and the fall of Jerusalem and chooses her, and the love that grows from one person to all.
Then comes Book the First, told by a man called Felix. He returns to Sarum Close, the cathedral precinct of Salisbury, six years after he left. The red brick house of Dean Churchill looks the same, and someone in the study plays a wedding march. The Dean is as kind as ever, a widower who seems to be looking toward heaven, and his three daughters are grown.
Felix remembers Honor as a proud girl who would not let him pull the swing, Mary as a pale and serious girl who argued with him about faith, and Mildred as a child with a hoop. The house feels like a quiet temple of good manners. That calm sets the tone of the poem, and it makes you wonder which sister will draw him in.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
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Who’s who
- Felix
- Felix is a young man whose courtship of Honoria forms the central thread of the poem.
- Honoria
- Honoria is a cathedral dean’s daughter whom Felix courts, embodying the poem’s ideal of a gentle, devoted wife.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 26,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 45 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Der Engel im Haus
What is The Angel in the House about?
It is a narrative poem about the courtship and marriage of Felix Vaughan and Honoria Churchill in Salisbury. Through scenes of visits, dances and letters, it praises married love as honour, service and shared faith.
Who is the angel in the house?
The angel is the ideal wife, shown in the poem as Honoria, who is gentle, modest and devoted.
Is The Angel in the House a true story?
It is a story in verse, and Felix, Honoria and the Churchills are the poet's characters. Patmore wrote it in the Victorian period.
Is The Angel in the House easy to read?
The poem moves in short cantos with alternating rhymes, a clear story, a lively voice and plenty of comic scenes. Reading one canto at a time works well, and aloud the rhymes carry you along.
What is the main message of the poem?
Patmore argues that marriage is the root of all love, and that reverence, gratitude and service keep it alive. Felix's love for Honoria makes him examine his faults and try to become worthy of her.