World’s End

Stirmingham’s proud industrial reputation begins with an unlikely ancestor: a water-rat. Richard Jefferies opens his novel by tracing how a family of rats weakens an old willow, how the fallen tree dams a brook, and how barren ground becomes a marsh rich in reeds and wildlife. The narrator mocks the city’s grand accounts of its past while lingering over the small natural changes that prepare the ground for human settlement.

The story also enters the domestic world of The Place, where Violet and Aymer’s approaching wedding sets the household and acquaintances talking. An ailing Mr. Waldron arranges for his solicitor to give Violet away, while farmer Martin Brown agrees to serve as Aymer’s best man. Aymer’s newly accepted sketch and short story give him money for clothes and fresh confidence in his work. Readers can find both close observation of landscape and a wry account of social manners, practical needs, and hopes surrounding a marriage.