10 h 55 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In the fog on Waterloo Bridge, a woman risks her life to stop a desperate man from taking another.
Midnight sounds through London's thick fog. An elderly gentleman loses his way on Waterloo Bridge, pays a ragged boy for directions, and hears a whistle. Soon, a stranger seizes his throat. In Fergus Hume's A Woman's Burden, the distance between comfort and danger shrinks to a few steps across wet stone.
Miriam rushes to the gentleman's aid and calls his attacker Jabez. He claims their hunger justifies his violence; she refuses to let him kill. When a constable arrives, suspicion falls on the woman who intervenes. Her courage meets a world quick to judge by appearances, where poverty and respectability receive very different treatment.
What you’ll discover
- A bridge swallowed by fog Dim lamps, cold stone, and an unseen river turn a crossing into a threat.
- Miriam's dangerous stand Meet a woman who puts herself at risk rather than allow a killing.
- Hunger against conscience Jabez invokes their shared starvation, but Miriam refuses to accept his brutal answer.
- Respectability under pressure A gentleman's fur coat and Miriam's treatment expose the sharp divide between their positions.
- Suspicion after rescue The constable's response adds fresh unease when Miriam should have reason to feel safe.
Who will love it
Readers who love Victorian sensation stories will enjoy its fog-filled London, secret pasts, eccentric villains and fiercely principled heroine. So will lovers of sharp social comedy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fog, a bridge, and a rescue
- A respectable man makes a strange offer
- A governess lands among village gossips
- A bull, a rescuer, and a knowing chuckle
- A dinner, a pile of music, and a failed plot
- Barton's revenge and Miriam's confession of love
- Shorty, the Shadow, and a meeting in the snow
- Duty is the burden the title names
- Money, marriage, and who gets the fortune
- How Hume tells it: shadows, types and cliffhangers
Who’s who
- Miriam CraneA sea captain's daughter, starving in London, who saves a stranger's life and then tries to do right by everyone, including a brother who takes advantage.
- Richard BartonThe wealthy squire of Lesser Thorpe, a cynical collector of crime books, who has a secret plan for Miriam and his nephew.
- Gerald ArkelBarton's handsome, easygoing nephew, loved by everyone and hungry for pleasure, who expects to inherit a fortune and has no wish to work.
- Hilda MarshA pretty doctor's daughter raised to marry money, who flatters the rich and wants a house at the Manor above all else.
- Mrs. Dacre DarrowBarton's vain, spiteful niece, who plays the martyr, lives on his allowance and sets out to expose the new governess.
- Major John DundasBarton's other nephew, a steady, decent soldier who admires Miriam and values honor above comfort.
- JabezMiriam's reckless, ungrateful brother, who drifts from one scrape to another and keeps coming back to her for money.
- Mrs. ParsleyThe vicar's wife, a loud, sharp-tongued ruler of the parish who has a heart of gold and takes Miriam under her wing.
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Il fardello di una donna
by Fergus Hume · 1900
A starving woman stops a stranger's murder on Waterloo Bridge, and his help draws her into a coercive marriage plot.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
Midnight on Waterloo Bridge, and a London fog so thick that Big Ben strikes twelve without being seen. A lost old gentleman pays a ragged boy a coin for the name of the bridge.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A fog, a bridge, and a rescue
The novel opens with a fog so heavy that it seems to press against the eyes. The homeless crouch on the stone benches of Waterloo Bridge. Into this scene walks an old gentleman in a fur coat, plainly rich and plainly lost.
A man leaps out of the dark and seizes him by the throat. He is Jabez, and he means to rob the stranger because he and the woman he loves have not eaten for days. Then a woman rushes up, calls him by name and begs him to let go. When he refuses, she climbs onto the parapet and swears she will jump. He gives way and runs off just as a policeman comes up with his lantern.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1900
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 7 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hume, Fergus. A Woman's Burden. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-womans-burden.
Hume, F. (2026). A woman's burden. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-womans-burden (Original work published 1900)
Hume, Fergus. A Woman's Burden. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-womans-burden.
@book{hume2026womans,
author = {Hume, Fergus},
title = {A Woman's Burden},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-womans-burden},
note = {First published 1900}
}
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What is A Woman's Burden about?
It follows Miriam Crane, a penniless young woman who saves a rich stranger on Waterloo Bridge. He then hires her as a governess for a purpose of his own, and her loyalty to her brother Jabez draws her into secrets, blackmail and a family fortune.
Who is Barton in A Woman's Burden?
Richard Barton is the rich squire of Lesser Thorpe whom Miriam saves on the bridge. He collects books on crime, visits slums in London, and has a private plan involving Miriam and his nephew Gerald Arkel.
Who is Jabez in the novel?
Jabez is the man who attacks Barton on the bridge. He is the one Miriam loves and protects, and he keeps returning to ask her for money. The book slowly shows how closely he is tied to her past.
The author
Fergus Hume
1859–1932 · English mystery novelist
Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a British novelist born in England. He grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, and moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 1885. He published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab in 1886. He returned to England in 1888 and continued writing crime novels, including The Green Mummy.
More by Fergus Hume
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