Résumé
Résumé de Les Madigan
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who enjoy funny, quarrelsome families, girls with big tempers and sharp tongues, and the lively mining-town life of the American West, told in short episodes that you can enjoy one at a time.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Madigans is a comic novel by Miriam Michelson about six sisters growing up in Virginia City, Nevada, a silver-mining town built at a steep slope up the side of Mount Davidson. Their father, Francis Madigan, is a brilliant, sour, unlucky man who wanted sons. Their Aunt Anne, a dreamy lady who writes letters from morning to night, is supposed to raise them. In practice the girls raise themselves, mostly by fighting.
Each chapter is a small adventure with its own plot. A list of promises to be good falls apart before breakfast. A girl freezes on a stage, a stagecoach rolls down a hill with a child aboard, a kissing game goes wrong, and a picnic on a mountain ends in a terrifying walk across a high trestle. You meet the sisters one by one and learn how each of them guards her pride.
You also get a lively picture of a mining town, with its Chinese cook, its Piute woodcutter, its fussy ladies, and its boys on sleds. Under all the noise sits a family that loves fiercely and almost never says so. Let us begin with the first key point, the day Sissy tries to become a saint.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Sissy tries to be good and failsFree
- 2Two sisters at war over music
- 3A stage fright and a sickbed
- 4The twins fight their own wars
- 5Irene dreams of a royal father
- 6Frank, the baby of many mothers
- 7Letters, a walking match, and a picnic
- 8What the book is really about
- 9How the stories are told
Point clé 1 sur 9
Sissy tries to be good and fails
The book opens on the first of April in Virginia City, Nevada. Cecilia Morgan Madigan, called Sissy, is eleven years old, round and serious, and proud of standing first in her class. She writes herself a solemn pact of ten promises, which range from dusting the back legs of the piano to being patient with her father. She folds it, kisses it for lack of a seal, and buttons it inside her corset waist. In a postscript she admits that the tenth promise, to bear with her sister Irene, will be the hardest.
The pact fails before breakfast. Irene, whom the whole family calls Split, slides a flat piece of ice down the back of Sissy's dress. The twins Bessie and Florence, nicknamed Bep and Fom, are no help with the buttons, and Sissy slaps them both. Aunt Anne then sends her to stand with her nose to the wall, her dress open down the back and a towel dangling from it. Kate laughs at the sight, and even Aunt Anne cannot keep a straight face, so Sissy pricks a rude word about her aunt into the wallpaper with a pin.
At school Sissy is the leader of her class and the favorite of her young teacher, Mr. Garvan. When he breaks his promise about which questions he will ask in the geography examination, she answers that she does not know the highest mountain in the world. Her eyes pass the same silent order down the row, and one girl after another refuses to answer. Split ends the strike by naming Mount Davidson, and in the dressing room Sissy calls her Changeable Silk in front of a furious crowd.
Dinner is worse. Split has stolen the pact, and the sisters recite its promises back to Sissy one by one, begging her to be a little mother to the baby and to set a good example. Sissy flees to her room and weeps, then kneels to pray aloud, though no Madigan child has ever been taught how. Her father, who scorns religion, finds her and says, with a hint of laughter, that she may pray if it is her nature.
That night she creeps to the piano in the dark to keep one promise, plays scales with her bare foot on the soft pedal, and falls asleep over the keys. Wong, the Chinese cook, comes home and takes the white figure for the devil, and the house wakes up. Her father carries her to bed, and she asks him what men do with promises they cannot keep. He says they go bankrupt and tear up the paper, so she hands him her pact and begs him to tear it. She falls asleep content, a happy bankrupt instead of a Pharisee.
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 Les Madigan
What is The Madigans about?
It follows six sisters in Virginia City, Nevada, as they quarrel, scheme, and grow up under a gloomy father and a dreamy aunt who writes letters. Each chapter is a funny episode about pride, rivalry, and family loyalty.
Who are the main characters in The Madigans?
The story centers on Sissy, the proper third sister, and Split, the wild second one, with Kate, the twins Bep and Fom, and little Frank. Their father Francis and Aunt Anne also play key roles.
Why is Irene called Split?
Irene earns the nickname for a gymnastic feat that no other Madigan can match half as well. The family loves nicknames, so most of the sisters have several, such as Sissy, Bep, Fom, and Frank.
Is The Madigans a true story and where is it set?
It is a novel, but it draws on real places and details of Virginia City in the days of the Comstock silver mines. The streets, mines, and famous mountains named in the chapters are drawn from the real town.
Is The Madigans easy to read?
The chapters are short, funny episodes with lively dialogue, so you can read one at a time. The family's private nicknames and mangled words become familiar quickly and add to the fun.