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The Bondman (novel)

The Bondman AuthorHall CaineCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishPublished1890 (Heinemann)Media typePrint (hardcover)Pages397 pp (1910 edition)
The Bondman is an 1890 best-selling novel by Hall Caine set in the Isle of Man and Iceland. It was the first novel to be released by the newly established Heinemann publishing company. It was a phenomenal success and was later adapted into a successful play and two silent films.

The plot revolves around two half brothers, the one, Jason, sworn to avenge the wrongs done by their father; the other, Michael, sworn to rectify these wrongs. They both fall in love with the same woman and their travels take from between the Isle of Man and Iceland, crossing personal upheavals, political revolutions and natural disasters. The novel ends with one half-brother giving his life so that the other may escape to a life with the one he loves.

Plot
The Book of Stephen Orry
Maughold Head, where Stephen Orry suffers his fatal injury
An Icelandic fisherman, Stephen Orry, bears two sons, one to the governor's daughter in Reykjav�k, another to the lowest of women on the Isle of Man. The Iceland-born son, Jason "the Red", is brought up in poverty and is left with his mother's dying wish for him to seek vengeance on his father who had brought them to that position. The Manx-born son, Michael "Sunlocks", is brought up by the Deputy Governor of the Isle of Man, alongside his daughter, Greeba, as Stephen could not support him or keep him from bad influences. When Michael is 19, Stephen returns and sends him to Iceland to make good his wrong to his wife there. As Michael sets sail from the Isle of Man, Jason arrives on a boat from Iceland. After surviving shipwreck in Ramsey bay, Jason is called upon to save Stephen Orry from his own boating accident off Maughold Head. However, Stephen dies of his injuries, but not before Jason comes to recognise him as his father and achieves a reconciliation.

The Book of Michael Sunlocks
Jason remains on the island and falls in love with Greeba. After four years without word from Michael, Greeba consents to marry Jason. However, when she then receives a letter from Michael, she goes to marry him in Iceland, where he has risen to become governor of the country newly independent of Danish rule.

Jason returns to Iceland, learns of Michael, his role in Greeba's departure and his being his half brother, and so resolves to kill him. However, Greeba learns of his plan and has him arrested. Upon learning this, Michael looks to make good his father's wrong and so sends to have Jason released.

Michael is then thrown into doubt by lies told to him in a vain attempt at blackmail by Greeba's avaricious brothers. Believing that Greeba loved Jason and had only come to him for his wealth and position, he resigns from his post in government. However, before this can come into effect, Danish soldiers storm the meeting, arrest the ministers and claim Iceland again as under Danish rule.

The Book of Red Jason
Cliff tops on Gr�msey
Michael Sunlocks is sent to work in the sulphur mines penal colony. Here he grows into friendship with Red Jason, as each is unaware of the identity of the other. Jason comes to increasingly protect Michael from cruel treatment by the Danish authorities, until he is forced to carry out an escape to save Michael from certain death through the dangerous work assigned to them. However, although Jason gains his freedom, Michael is again imprisoned, this time on Grimsey, a small island off the north coast of Iceland. Although officially still a 'bondman' (a "prisoner-slave"), Michael is now blind from the exertion of the work at the mines, and so he is left in the care of a priest. Greeba joins the household as a maid, but remains unknown to Michael by keeping silent when in his presence. This she does to demonstrate that she cares little for her position but is fully devoted to him, thus proving the inverse of Michael's suspicions.

After two and a half years, the Danish authorities grow nervous of Michael and so send to have him executed. Jason, however, who has returned to Iceland after some years away, hears of this plan and so races to Grimsey ahead of the Danish soldiers. Here he orchestrates Michael's escape with Greeba, by his stepping in as bondman in Michael's place. The next day Jason is shot by the Danish soldiers and he dies satisfied knowing that Michael is with Greeba safely sailing home to the Isle of Man.

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