Mrs. Bathurst | The Art of the Complex

In the following excerpt, Gilbert examines stylistic
aspects of Kipling’s ‘‘Mrs. Bathurst,’’ asserting
that the story’s unorthodox narrative structure
underscores the themes of chance and accident.

It would be useful for us, at this point, to consider what it is that happens in ‘‘Mrs. Bathurst.’’ A warrant officer named Vickery, within eighteen months of his pension, has deserted his duty under peculiar circumstances in the back country of South Africa. Four men gather by chance in a railroad car and after some rambling discussion undertake to piece together Vickery’s story from the fragments that each of them has. It seems that Vickery was a devoted family man until the day he met and fell in love with the fascinating Mrs. Bathurst, a widow who ran a small hotel for...

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