Phineas Fletcher, the invalid son of a Quaker tanner, first sees John Halifax as a ragged boy sheltering from the rain. The two become lifelong friends, and Phineas narrates John’s rise from tannery hand to mill owner and gentleman, his marriage, his stand during bread riots, and his struggles with the coming of steam to the cloth trade.
A huge success in 1856, and still a moving picture of friendship and the self-made man in industrial England. Download the free EPUB.