Jan 1, 2010

The Wives of the Dead | Summary

Part One
In the first part of ‘‘The Wives of the Dead,’’ the narrator assures readers his tale is ‘‘scarcely worth relating,’’ then proceeds to tell it in detail. A hundred years ago, in the early eighteenth century, two "young and comely'' (attractive) women in a Massachusetts seaport town married brothers and set up house together. In ‘‘two successive’’ days, they learn of their husbands' deaths: one is lost at sea, while the other is killed fighting the French and Indians in Canada. The British battled with the French for control of North America...