The Secret River: Part 1: London Summary & Analysis

The Thornhill family lives near the river in London in cramped quarters. The streets are only wide enough for one person in places, and everything is dirty. The church steeples are the tallest things, and there's one around every corner. William remembers his life beginning at Christ Church by the river. The building was huge enough to scare him, with snarling stone lions at the gates. Inside, William feels as though his being expands with no boundaries. He doesn't understand God and is even more frightened.

Once William Thornhill learns his name, he realizes that there are many William Thornhills in the world. Most notable is his brother, the first William Thornhill, who died when he was a week old. When William Thornhill was born a year and a half later in 1777, he took on the same name. He always felt his brother's ghost, however, and resented his cousins who were also named William Thornhill.

Ma and Mary sew shrouds while Lizzie cares for the babies. She's sweet and motherly, and makes William feel warm and loved. The family is always hungry. Pa works wherever and whenever he can and has a constant rattling cough. When William turns five, he begins accompanying Pa to collect dog feces for a factory. William never learned what they used the feces for, but thinks that being hungry is worse than the smell. Ma prefers to steal than collect dog feces. She and William's siblings steal books from booksellers.

By the time William is ten, he's a fighter and enjoys feeling his rage. He runs around the city with his brothers, James and Rob, and his friends, William Warner and Dan Oldfield. Dan is an expert at stealing roasted chestnuts and is kind enough to share them. A boy named Collarbone joins them too. They all steal in order to eat.

When Ma has more babies, William begins spending time with Lizzie's friend Sal since Lizzie's attention is elsewhere. Sal is an only child: though her parents had more babies after her, they all died within a month of their births. Mr. Middleton is a waterman and he keeps a warm, narrow house that always has food. When son after son dies, however, Mr. Middleton becomes sterner and quieter, and the house is always sad. The Middletons dote on Sal, and although she's not particularly beautiful she flourishes with the care. William finds Sal and her life intriguing: Sal can't bear to see a chicken killed, and he dreams of living in a home like hers on Swan Lane.

William and Sal find common ground through their siblings: he has too many, she has too few. They often slip away to a sheltered spot near the fields and watch the rain on the river. He loves Sal's face and listening to her speak. With her, William doesn't have to fight. One day he shows her how far he can spit, but lets her think that she can spit further. She calls him Will, which he likes.

When William is thirteen, Ma gets very sick. Ma hallucinates that she's a child trying to pet the lions on the gateposts at Christ Church. When she dies, she's buried in a common grave. The next day, William goes to the church and throws a glob of muck at the lions. Not long after, Pa dies, leaving the family without a head. William's brother Matty had already left to be a sailor and James had disappeared, so the job of supporting the family falls to William. He tries to work at a factory but quits after he sees a child crushed by an engine. When he can, he works as a "lumper" on the wharves. He loves the docks.

One day, William finds a group of men in a warehouse opening up a crate of brown sugar. The sight of all the sugar makes William's mouth water. While the other men fill bags that hang in their coats and then leave, William stays and shoves sugar into his mouth. He hears footsteps approaching and tries to fill his hat and leave, but his boss catches him. The boss strikes the hat to the ground and accuses William of stealing, but William insists that the crate was already open. The boss doesn't listen and whips William. William learns he should never get caught.

When William is 14 and the snow comes, the river freezes over. While those more fortunate enjoy a fair on the ice, work on the ships is stalled. Mary continues sewing shrouds and William's brothers steal potatoes, but there's little work to be done. After another baby son dies, Mr. Middleton realizes he'll never have a son to take over his business and agrees to take William on as an apprentice. He also finds sewing work for Mary and Lizzie.

In January, Mr. Middleton takes William to Watermen's Hall to be bound as an apprentice. William is breathless as he thinks of the possibilities of his future: after the seven year apprenticeship, he can be a freeman on the river, carrying people and goods across the river as long as he stays healthy. He thinks he'll be able to marry Sal and inherit Mr. Middleton's business. Mr. Middleton pulls William into a grand room. Robed men sit on the other side of a mahogany table and address Mr. Middleton by his first name. William realizes that these men are of a much higher status than Mr. Middleton.

Mr. Middleton introduces William and the robed men ask if William has his "river hands." Mr. Middleton explains that William already has blisters from rowing, and William offers his hands to the robed men. They laugh and grant him his apprentice's license.

For the first time, William is well-fed and warm. His blisters never heal and the blood from them stains his oar brown. Mr. Middleton teaches William how to read the tide, and he learns how to interact with the gentry and not get cheated. William develops a charming way of interacting with the gentry, but thinks of them as a different species. One day, standing in the water and steadying his boat as a couple climbs in, he hears the man telling his companion to not show her leg to "the boatman." William looks up at the gentleman, whose look tells William that, while the gentleman "owns" the woman, William owns nothing. William thinks that the gentleman doesn't look like he knows what to do with his beautiful companion, even if she is his property.

William looks to the woman's leg, covered in silk stockings with green silk slippers on her feet. Although the woman thanks her husband, William thinks that she's purposefully showing him her leg, possibly to provoke her husband. The husband climbs in and pulls his wife's skirt down over her leg. When William climbs into the boat, the woman stretches her leg out, pulls her skirt to her knee, and laments that her slipper is ruined. She gives William a quick look, and William realizes that the gentry are indeed people, with human desires.

William spends his Sundays with Sal since he doesn't have to work. The first winter she decides to teach him to read and write, though he's not particularly interested. He can keep lists and do math in his head and sees no reason to write anything down, but humors Sal. The quill feels foreign in his hand and when he finally tries to write, ink splatters all over the paper. William thinks that he can do anything but this. Sal laughs, but soon stops. She draws a T for Thornhill on the paper in dots, and William carefully traces it. He insists on being done for the day. By the end of winter, he becomes the first in his family able to write his name.

As the years go by, William realizes that he's in love with Sal. He thinks about her while he's on the river and the thought warms him. They begin spending time together in the graveyard at Christ Church, where they read the writing on headstones. One day, he tells her that as soon as he's done with his apprenticeship, he'll marry her. She promises to wait for him.

William and Sal marry on the day William is freed from his apprenticeship. Mr. Middleton gifts William a boat as a wedding gift, and the couple takes a room near Mr. Middleton's house. At night, they tell each other stories. Sal tells William about Cobham Hall, a luxurious place where her mother worked before marrying. They talk about their future as well: the children they'll have and how successful William will be on the river. William (who now begins to go by Thornhill) can barely believe his good luck. He works primarily rowing coal and timber to shore and can employ Rob to help him.

Sal gives birth to a boy a year later. Though they christen him William, they call him Willie. Thornhill loves Willie, and loves watching Sal care for him. When Willie is two, winter arrives with a vengeance. In January, the Thames freezes and the Thornhills huddle together and hope the money they have saved is enough to get them through. Things begin to go downhill quickly: Lizzie comes down with the quinsy (a form of tonsillitis), and then Mrs. Middleton falls on the ice and struggles to recover. The surgeon is expensive, as are the delicacies that Mr. Middleton fetches for her with the hope of getting her to eat something.

Sal and Thornhill visit often. One day they meet Mr. Middleton on his way to an apothecary across town. He refuses to be talked out of going. He returns to his wife hours later. Mrs. Middleton takes one sip of the mixture before refusing more, and Mr. Middleton finally allows Sal to help him out of his coat and boots. Mr. Middleton is very cold and wakes with a fever the next day. He dies a week later. When Sal tells her mother, Mrs. Middleton turns away, refuses to eat, and finally dies.

After the Middletons' deaths, Thornhill realizes that their prosperity had been precarious. Mr. Middleton had spent all his savings on the delicacies for his wife and the prescriptions from the doctor. When the rent collector calls, Thornhill finally understands that Mr. Middleton's house was leased, not owned, and he begins to think of it as cheerless and unsafe. He and Sal sell the furniture to pay rent, but the bailiffs seize Mr. Middleton's boats, including the one he'd given Thornhill as a wedding gift. Thornhill must now make a living as a journeyman, rowing boats for other men.

Sal fights this turn of fate. When Mrs. Middleton dies, Sal purchases red velvet for her coffin. She doesn't cry until they bury Mr. Middleton, but after she cries, she seems more prepared to move forward. She takes it upon herself to find her family cheaper and cheaper rooms. Thornhill admires her tenacity, even as she begins to steal food. Because Sal has never experienced hunger before, stealing is fun for her. She acts as though it's a fun game, but Thornhill feels as though his life is going backwards.

One day, Sal develops a plan to steal a chicken from their landlord. Thornhill successfully abducts the chicken and gets it up to their room, but before they can wring its neck, they hear footsteps on the stairs. Sal throws the chicken out the window, where it stalks across the roof of the outhouse, clucking. When their landlord bursts into the room, he accuses the Thornhills of stealing, but they swear they did nothing and the landlord leaves them alone.

The narrator explains that watermen in general were not honest people. They were all thieves, though some were certainly better than others. The narrator mentions Thomas Blackwood, a successful thief who owns a lighter (a type of boat) with a false bottom for storing stolen goods. Collarbone isn't so lucky: he's caught with Spanish brandy and sentenced to hang. Thornhill visits him the day before his hanging and imagines hanging himself. Collarbone asks Thornhill to bribe the executioner to buy him a quick death, and Thornhill agrees. The executioner, however, takes no notice of the bribe and Collarbone chokes and tosses on his rope the next morning. Rob vomits, and later Thornhill tells Sal that it was a clean, quick hanging. She sighs and turns back to her darning.

Thornhill is hired by Mr. Lucas, a successful man who's rumored to want to be Lord Mayor of London. He employs a man named Yates as a foreman and doesn't tolerate thieving on his boats: he made sure one man caught stealing from him hung to set an example for others. Thornhill is cautious at first and learns to bribe the marine police with French brandy. One night, after three years of working for Mr. Lucas, one of Thornhill's friends lets him know that a ship has just arrived carrying valuable Brazil wood.

Yates instructs Thornhill to transport the Brazil wood, along with other timber, to a wharf upriver. Thornhill is ready and thinks of Sal as he sleeps in his boat. She's pregnant again, and doesn't ask too many questions about where Thornhill's money comes from. All the same, he senses that she's beginning to turn away from him.

At daybreak, Rob doesn't show up to help Thornhill load the wood. Thornhill hires another man to help and grows angry with Rob. When most of the timber is loaded, Mr. Lucas arrives. Thornhill asks if there's more wood, and Mr. Lucas finally tells Thornhill where the Brazil wood is. Mr. Lucas marks the pieces of wood with his mark, and Thornhill wonders if he shouldn't follow through with the theft. He wonders if Mr. Lucas knows what he's planning.

At 11 that night, the tide turns and Thornhill guides his boat upstream. He finds the appropriate wharf where he knows his personal boat is waiting, but the tide is too low to unload. He calls softly for Rob, who finally appears and helps Thornhill pull the boat to shore. After they tie up the boat, Thornhill hears a splash and wonders if something isn't right. He and Rob begin to unload the Brazil wood into Thornhill's boat when suddenly Thornhill hears boots running and Mr. Lucas yelling. As Mr. Lucas gets closer, he trips on the oars and Thornhill and Rob manage to push off into the river. Rob is upset that he lost his coat in the scuffle, which Thornhill finds a silly fixation given the circumstances.

Thornhill thinks they've successfully escaped when he hears Mr. Lucas yelling for Yates to get them. Thornhill notices another small boat quickly approaching, and he rows away as fast as he can. Yates is a big man, however, and quickly catches up. Suddenly, the boat lurches as Yates jumps into Thornhill's boat. Rob yells and falls into the river. Thornhill pleads with Yates before jumping into the river himself and climbing into Yates's boat. Yates doesn't pursue Thornhill, but Mr. Lucas offers a ten-pound reward for Thornhill's capture, and Thornhill is found the next day.

Sal, Lizzie, and Mary visit Thornhill in the Newgate prison. Sal brings Willie, who's four, but Thornhill asks her to not bring him again. They also bring food, but he can barely eat. Thornhill feels hopeless, but Sal has a plan. She knows that Thornhill needs a story that he believes wholeheartedly and will be able to recite as though it's the truth. Sal suggests that Thornhill say that he left the timber at the wharf to make his boat lighter, but while he was away, someone took the wood. The story makes Thornhill hopeful, and he becomes even more hopeful when he hears the next day that a man accused of stealing ducks was just acquitted because he insisted he was "as innocent as the child unborn."

The courtroom is a bear pit: barristers and ushers are near the ground, the jury sit along the wall on the next level up, and the witness and judge are on the same level opposite each other. Behind the witness sits the scribe, who records every word, and near the ceiling are the public galleries. As he stands in the courtroom, Thornhill tries to pick out Sal in the gallery. He can't quite find her, but knows she's there. His hands are tied behind his back, forcing him to hunch over. Thornhill is struck by how powerful words are in court: words will either save him or condemn him.

A lawyer named Mr. Knapp is assigned to represent Thornhill. Mr. Lucas takes the stand first, and Mr. Knapp sets a clever trap: he insists the night was so dark, Mr. Lucas could only identify Thornhill by his voice, which isn't enough to prosecute. Mr. Lucas seems annoyed and repeats that he knew Thornhill's voice. When Yates takes the stand, he looks very unhappy and cannot escape Mr. Knapp's trap regarding Thornhill's voice. Thornhill can feel Mr. Lucas staring at him.

When Thornhill is allowed to speak, Sal's story disappears from his mind. He insists he's innocent, but the judge seems to not be listening. Finally, the judge sentences Thornhill to hang. When Thornhill is pushed back into his cell at Newgate, he feels naked without his story and his hope.

Sal visits him later and tells him that the way out of his death sentence is to send letters "up the line." She tells him who to speak to, and Thornhill later buys a letter by trading in his wool greatcoat. The letter is to Captain Watson, one of Thornhill's regulars, imploring him to speak on his behalf. Thornhill stares at the illegible scribbles on the page and feels hopeless that they're the thing that can save him.

Captain Watson sends a letter on Thornhill’s behalf to Lord Hawkesbury, who alone has the power to pardon Thornhill. Watson also sends a copy of his letter to Sal. She has to pay the man who wrote the initial letter to read Watson's letter aloud, and she and Thornhill fear it won't do any good. He and Sal smile at each other, but they know that this is the end and that Sal will have to "go on the streets" to make a living now.

One morning, a man comes to the cell door and yells Thornhill's name. The man reads quickly that Thornhill's death sentence will no longer stand, but that he will be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. The clerk accompanying the reader asks for Thornhill’s wife’s name, and says that she and Willie have also been granted passage to New South Wales.