Eugene Aram

Summary

In the hush before dawn on a mud-slicked Yorkshire road, a starving scholar named Eugene Aram—his coat threadbare yet stuffed with Ovid—stumbles upon a tableau of temptation: the swaggering reprobate Housman dangling a letter that smells of clove and rupee-sweat, promising rubies wrested from some maharajah’s gratitude. One moonlit ambush later, a stranger’s hand clamps like a manacle round Eugene’s wrist while leaves gulp down blood; the jewels vanish, the body disappears, and the guilt calcifies into a second skeleton that will follow Eugene like a disobedient shadow. Five winters on, the same man—now a village schoolmaster who parses Latin verbs while hearing drum-rolls of damnation—discovers that the past wears his own face: pupils chant snatches of graveyard verse, the woman he loves wears violets that smell of fresh earth, and Walter, the dead man’s heir, circles like a moth with a broken wing. When the real corpse surfaces in St Robert’s cave, accusation blooms faster than henbane; letters, horses, and a dying child’s rag-doll become exhibits in a trial orchestrated by a gin-soaked blackmailer whose price keeps rising. The scaffold, finally, is merely the last lectern from which Eugene delivers a lecture no one will applaud: that knowledge, once bitten, can be neither spat out nor digested, only hanged.

Synopsis

Eugene Aram, devoid of opportunity as far as scholasticism is concerned, is ambitious to learn, and his labored course. of study is a source of merriment to Housman, a degenerated distant relation. Housman chances to read a letter written by a man known as Clark to his son, Walter, at Grassdale, England, to the effect that he is about to return to him with a quantity of jewels and sundry valuables, given him as a reward for saving a person's life in India. Housman sees many of the jewels and rarities and determines to rob Clark. He persuades Eugene to go in on the job with him. Clark is attacked by Housman and felled by a blow, as Eugene comes up. Clark seizes the tatter's hand as Eugene prevents another blow from being struck. Clark is killed, however, and Eugene, refusing to accept any of the money, dismisses Housman after the body has been covered up with leaves. At Grassdale, Walter is in love with Madeline, who treats him with pronounced apathy in consideration of her sister, Eleanor, who loves Walter extremely. Five years pass and Eugene is a schoolmaster in Grassdale. His mind is tortured by the vision of Clark which he continues to have. Even his pupils, with the aid of significant poems and verses, seem to be conspiring to add to his discomfort. Eugene has met Madeline and they are enamored of each other, their association firing the jealousy of Walter, who warns Madeline against Eugene. Housman and his associates force entrance into the Lester home and Eugene, who happens to be there at the time, shoots Housman, but not fatally. They recognize each other, and Eugene promises to meet Housman at the glen the next day. At the meeting Housman demands a large sum to keep from Eugene's friends the particulars of Clark's death. Subsequently Eugene goes to Housman's hovel in London and gives him the money and receives the assurance that Housman will leave the country. Walter continues to disparage Eugene in Madeline's eyes. Housman receives word that his child, Ann, is dying and holds up Walter, who is on a trip to London, and relieves him of his fleet horse. Housman arrives to find his beloved daughter dead. He enters an inn and soon is intoxicated. Some strangers are discussing the unearthing of a skeleton, supposed to be that of Clark, who disappeared five years before. Walter enters the inn and listens. Housman interrupts by stating that they are wrong, as he can show them Clark's skeleton. He goes to St. Robert's cave and shows him Clark's bones. He then tells Walter that Eugene Aram committed the murder. Eugene is arrested, tried and adjudged guilty on the strength of Housman's testimony. Walter implores Eugene to confess, promising him forgiveness, and Eugene gives the exact account of the robbery and murder. Walter believes and shows great gratitude and friendship. Madeline is approached by the now repentant Walter and is told the verdict. She crushes to her bosom the rose given her by Eugene and dies, the shock killing her. The closing scene shows Eugene on the gallows, expiating a crime that he did not commit.