Resumen
Resumen de Los Brenton
Para quién es
Readers who enjoy a witty New England novel full of sharply drawn characters, a troubled marriage, a quiet love story, and big questions about faith, science and what we owe the people who raised us.
De qué trata este libro
The Brentons is a novel by Anna Chapin Ray about a gifted young man who is steered into the ministry by his mother's prayers and by a girl who has decided, since childhood, that she will marry him. Scott Brenton wants to be a chemist. He gives up that dream out of love for his widowed mother, and then slowly finds that he can no longer say the creed he preaches.
The story follows Scott from a village in New England to a great college, to a country parish, and finally to Saint Peter's, a wealthy church beside a women's college. Along the way it sets him beside three people who shape him. There is Catie, who later renames herself Catia and then Kathryn. There is Reed Opdyke, the golden classmate who befriends him. And there is Olive Keltridge, the doctor's daughter, who sees what others miss.
You get a warm, wry, character-filled story about duty, marriage, faith and doubt. The humour is sharp and the people are vivid. Let us begin where Scott's life begins, at a breakfast table on a winter morning.
En este resumen
- 1A mother's prayer decides a futureFree
- 2Catie plans a husband and a life
- 3Reed Opdyke opens a wider world
- 4A creed loosened and a bride claimed
- 5Saint Peter's and the rector's wife
- 6Reed's accident and Scott's first real doubt
- 7A marriage going silent, and a son
- 8Reed, Olive, Whittenden and a different kind of courage
- 9What the book is really about, and how it is told
Idea clave 1 de 9
A mother's prayer decides a future
The novel opens with an evening prayer. Scott Brenton, a junior in college home for the holidays, overhears his widowed mother praying that he will go forth to preach. Days before, his chemistry professor, Mansfield, had told him he could make a name as a chemist.
At breakfast, over sausages that his mother chose to win him back, Scott tries to talk it through. Mrs. Brenton is a Wheeler, from a long line of Puritan parsons, and she believes that real faith comes through violent spiritual struggle. She will not tell him what to do. She only asks what he will think of his choice in twenty years.
Scott reads her hope in every pause. He has seen how she scraped and saved for his schooling. His sense of honor, which is large and young, tells him to give up the one thing he loves most for her sake.
So he makes his great sacrifice at the table, then goes upstairs alone for an hour. When he comes back down, he goes to find Catie. The scene sets the pattern for the whole book. Scott gives way out of love, and he will spend years paying for it.
The chapter also shows how Mrs. Brenton and Scott are alike and unlike. She cannot say her love aloud, and neither can he. Each of them hides behind duty. That habit of silence between people who care for each other will return again and again, in his marriage, in his friendships and in his work.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Los Brenton
What is The Brentons about?
It follows Scott Brenton, a gifted chemist pushed into the ministry by his mother, and his marriage to the determined Catie. As his doubts grow, his friends Reed Opdyke and Olive Keltridge shape the choices he faces.
Who is Reed Opdyke in The Brentons?
Reed is Scott's college friend, a handsome mining engineer and the son of a chemistry professor. A mine accident leaves him paralyzed, and his humor and courage become the moral center of the story.
What does puffic' fibbous mean in The Brentons?
It is the nurse's pet phrase for every newborn, a garbled form of a word for something Apollo-like. It follows Reed through life as a friendly nickname and returns when Scott's baby son is born.
Why does Catie change her name in The Brentons?
She starts as Catie, becomes Catia to sound prettier, and later Kathryn to sound more dignified. Each change marks her social ambition and her growing distance from Scott and from her village past.
Is The Brentons worth reading?
Yes for readers who like witty social comedy, strong characters and big questions. The chapters are short and full of lively talk, and the story moves between humor and real feeling.