Molly & the Captain: 'A gripping mystery' Observer

Product Information

And thus, individual women who fought during the Revolutionary War faded into legend. The myth of Molly Pitcher obscured the reality of how American women fought in the Revolution. The next section skips forward 100 years to the end of the 19th century. Our hero here is Paul Stransom, an artist with a twisted spine and a gifted eye. “Talent had come to him as mysteriously as disability,” we learn. Stransom lives with his sister, Maggie, in Chelsea. She is a teacher, disappointed in life and work, who in her late 20s has “the impression of an interesting future behind her”. Then, suddenly, she is being courted by two men, one of whom offers her Portrait of a Young Man. As the story goes, Hays leaped into action during the Battle of Monmouth. When her husband collapsed, she grabbed his cannon and started to fire. But was Mary Ludwig Hays the famous Molly Pitcher?

Years after the war, Hays applied for a pension from the state of Pennsylvania as the widow of a war veteran. Significantly, her pension was given “for services rendered.” A celebrated artist of the Georgian era paints his two young daughters at the family home in Bath. The portrait, known as "Molly &the Captain", becomes instantly famous, its fate destined to echo down the centuries, touching many lives. Secondly we are in Chelsea in the 1880s with artist Paul Stransom and his sister Maggie. Reminiscent of the ‘New Woman’ heroines of that era’s novels, she has missed out on the chance of going to university due to having to nurse their mother. Through friends of her brother, she happens to acquire a picture with strong connections to the famous Molly and The Captain.

Search members.

The final section in Kentish Town in the 1980s recounts artist Nell and her daughter Billie, the latter a film actress appearing in what sounds like a British version of Wim Wenders’ The Wings of Desire, as they both vie for the affections of a young pop star, Robbie. This is all very enjoyable, by turns comical and poignant. A secret about the titular painting emerges to bind all three sections tightly together. In some ways, Mary Ludwig Hays seems like a perfect fit for the Molly Pitcher legend. But she wasn’t the only woman on the battlefield during the American Revolution. She wasn’t the only woman soldiers called Molly. And Hays wasn’t the only one known for firing cannons. One infamous story that was later interpreted as being about McCauley comes from Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Plumb Martin’s 1830 book, A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. Martin’s description of a woman at Monmouth is quite remarkable: Brother Heywood ( Reginald VelJohnson) is the preacher at Carl and Rosetta's church. It is strongly hinted (and later openly revealed) that he and Rosetta are in a sexual relationship. He officiated at Mike and Molly's wedding, after Molly was too honest with the priest at Mike's Catholic church and the two were forced to look elsewhere.

Soon after marrying, the Browns moved into a two-room cabin in Stumpftown, Colorado, which was closer to the mines where J.J. worked. Margaret began taking reading and literature classes with a tutor, and in August 1887, the couple welcomed their first child, Lawrence (known as Larry).The action moves to the 19th century. Here, the pace is slower, but no less compelling. It follows a young not terribly successful painter, Paul, living with his sister Maggie a teacher, in Kentish Town. Friendships bloom, and he paints delightful scenes in Kensington Gardens – evocatively described. Paul, however, keeps seeing the ghostly figures in white of a mother and her two daughters. And wherever he goes, including Hastings, the figures appear and haunt his days and nights. Maggie meanwhile is beguiled by a painting she has seen in an auction, ‘School of Merrymount.’ Quinn is skilful with tension, fine historic detail, and the emotional conflict of his characters. Paul on Beachy Head: ‘below the sea glistened, immense, indifferent. It would be quite something to paint at this height.’ Unlike Hays, Corbin decided to start dressing like a man when she joined her husband in the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776. There, her husband was killed — and Corbin took over his cannon. In the heat of battle, other soldiers admired“Captain Molly’s” steady aim. De Pauw suggests that many of the “Molly Pitchers” of the world followed their husbands to war, learned how to fire cannons, and stood ready to take their husband’s place, should he fall.

A hero of the American Revolution, Margaret Cochran Corbin was the first woman to receive a military pension.

Share Book Reviews

Yet despite their newfound wealth and the opportunities it afforded them, the marriage between Margaret and J.J. was fraught with disagreements. In 1898, J.J. suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed for a time; while he recovered, his health was never entirely the same and years later, a friend of Margaret’s claimed he experienced “peculiar delusions” and was “constantly pulling the family hearse as chief mourner.”