The Widow Barnaby. Vol. 2 (of 3)

In Short

This second volume of a nineteenth-century social satire tracks the comic and often cringeworthy misadventures of Mrs. Barnaby, a widow obsessed with rising in the ranks of high society. Accompanied by her reluctant, beautiful niece Agnes, the widow navigates the social scenes of Clifton and Cheltenham, seeking wealthy suitors and validation. While the widow’s buffoonery provides the humor, the narrative is anchored by Agnes’s secret, painful devotion to a man who believes her to be beneath him. It is a sharp, observant study of human pretension.

The Story

The story follows the widow and her niece Agnes as they move from Clifton to the fashionable spa town of Cheltenham. Mrs. Barnaby, bolstered by her own sense of importance and a superficial charm, views every acquaintance and public outing as a stepping stone toward a grander marriage or a more prestigious circle. She is constantly on the lookout for suitors, oblivious to the fact that her own behavior—her loud manners, her desperate need for validation, and her willingness to exploit her niece’s talents—often makes her an object of ridicule among the very people she hopes to impress.

Agnes, meanwhile, serves as a foil to her aunt’s brashness. She is quiet, earnest, and deeply in love with Colonel Hubert, a man who initially views her with suspicion because of her association with the widow. While Frederick Stephenson, a wealthy and kind-hearted suitor, pursues Agnes with fervor, his efforts are consistently frustrated by Agnes’s indifference and his friend Hubert’s brooding, unspoken judgment. The tension between the characters builds as Mrs. Barnaby’s schemes become increasingly frantic. She manages to insert herself into the orbit of an aristocrat, Lord Mucklebury, who humors her only to collect stories of her absurdity for his own amusement.

As the widow’s social calendar fills with balls and tea parties, the narrative highlights the gulf between her perception of success and the reality of her reputation. Eventually, the arrival of a legal crisis—involving a wayward maid and a shady associate—forces a moment of public embarrassment, though the widow’s resilience is such that she immediately pivots back to her pursuit of social conquest in Cheltenham. The volume concludes with the collapse of her most prized ambition. After weeks of courting Lord Mucklebury, the widow discovers through a newspaper announcement that the nobleman has left town not for her, but to pursue a woman in London. The revelation shatters her illusions, yet she remains a figure defined by her own blindness, unable to reconcile her sense of self-worth with the world’s cool dismissal of her antics.

How It Unfolds

The social debut Mrs. Barnaby forces Agnes into the ball circuit at Clifton, prioritizing her own vanity while leaving her niece to suffer the social consequences of their questionable standing.

The unwanted suitor Frederick Stephenson falls headlong into a pursuit of Agnes, ignoring his friend Colonel Hubert’s warnings that the widow’s influence renders any connection to the girl a social liability.

The secret heart Agnes spends her days in quiet misery, pouring her unacknowledged love into music, while Hubert remains an aloof observer who both pities and avoids her.

The legal disruption A subplot involving a thieving maid forces the widow into a humiliating confrontation with the authorities, temporarily derailing her plans for social advancement.

The move to Cheltenham Seeking better prospects, the duo relocates to a new spa town, where the widow immediately begins recruiting local guides to help her climb the social ladder.

The final blow Lord Mucklebury, the target of the widow’s latest matrimonial scheme, abruptly departs, leaving the widow to discover his true motives and destination through the public press.

The People

Mrs. Barnaby is the engine of the narrative, a woman of unshakeable confidence and profound social blindness. Her primary desire is to secure a marriage that matches her self-proclaimed status, and she views Agnes as a tool to be displayed or exploited for this end. She is entirely unbothered by criticism, seeing only the slights of others as evidence of their own envy.

Agnes Willoughby is the emotional center of the book. As a dependent niece, she is trapped by her aunt’s whims, yet she possesses a quiet dignity and a singular, painful devotion to Colonel Hubert. Unlike her aunt, she is acutely aware of the social divide, which makes her attraction to the proud, distant Colonel a source of constant internal anguish.

Colonel Hubert is the story’s moral, albeit cold, anchor. He is deeply skeptical of the widow and wishes to protect his friend Frederick from what he deems an unsuitable alliance. His internal struggle lies in his own growing, yet carefully suppressed, attraction to Agnes, which he refuses to act upon due to her connection to the "vulgar" Mrs. Barnaby.

Frederick Stephenson provides the necessary contrast to the Colonel; he is a man of wealth and warmth who acts on his feelings for Agnes, yet he is ultimately defeated by his inability to see beyond her aunt’s shadow.

In Its Own Voice

Describing her own sense of self, the widow insists on her high standing:

"No attachment, however strong, will ever induce me to forget what I owe to my family and to the world; and unless circumstances shall enable me rather to raise than debase myself in society, I will never, whatever my feelings may be, permit myself to marry at all."

Reflecting on his friend’s infatuation, Colonel Hubert expresses his disdain for the widow’s company:

"I do not think that from the blissful time when I was sixteen, up to my present solemn five-and-thirty, I could ever have been tempted to look a second time at any miss under the chaperonship of such a dame as that feather and furbelow lady."

Agnes struggles with the hidden burden of her affection for the Colonel:

"Little could any one have guessed all this, but so it was; and Frederick Stephenson, with all his wealth, his comeliness, and kind heart to boot, had no more chance of being accepted as a husband by the poor, dependant Agnes Willoughby than the lowest hind that ploughs the soil by the proudest lady that owns it."

What It's Really About

The central argument concerns the corrosive nature of social ambition. The book explores how the desire to be "somebody" can blind a person to the realities of their own character and the feelings of those around them. Mrs. Barnaby represents the absurdity of a self-invented identity, while Agnes represents the tragedy of being trapped by the perceptions of others. The narrative poses a persistent question: does social status confer value, or does it merely provide a stage upon which human foolishness is amplified? It is an unflinching look at the cruelty inherent in class boundaries and the isolating power of vanity.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy the biting wit of Jane Austen but seek something with a more cynical, overtly comedic edge will find much to admire here. The book is a masterclass in social awkwardness; the feeling of reading it is akin to watching a slow-motion collision where you are both horrified by the actors and unable to look away. The period attitudes regarding "proper" society are on full display, providing a fascinating, if sometimes frustrating, look at the rigid expectations of the nineteenth century.

However, modern readers should be prepared for the deliberate pacing of the narrative. The book is not interested in swift resolution but rather in the meticulous deconstruction of the widow’s delusions. The use of occasional French phrases—often broken—by the sycophantic character Miss Morrison adds a layer of period-specific color that requires a bit of patience. What stays with you is the sharp, unsentimental portrait of the widow, whose lack of self-awareness is both a source of great humor and a reminder of how easily we can all lose sight of reality when we are chasing the approval of a world that does not care for us. It is a rewarding, if demanding, social document.