Wealth, a fairly common theme in literature, is often a character’s legacy from birth and other times, a result of hard work. Unfortunately, there’s another scenario, and in today’s episode of “Counterparts in Literature“, featuring a snippet from dad’s book, “Rowena”, that’s the tragic trail we’re headed down.
Prior to the time the world took to the air, in those days when extended automobile trips were more ordeal than pleasure, America moved behind great steam locomotives on gleaming steel rails. If there were those who didn’t reside reasonably close to a rail line, it was because they were atop a mountain, or in the middle of a forgotten desert. Even a few of those self-styled hermits were served by some, less than grand, narrow gauge that hauled ore, logs or other commodities purloined from Mother Nature.
By virtue of their size and scope, the volume of freight, human and otherwise, moved by the railroads, was staggering. Unfortunately a byproduct of this was frequent wrecks. Most, not news worthy, were more an inconvenience than a threat to the passengers’ well-being, occasionally, though, one of catastrophic proportions did occur. When that happened, the eyes of a nation were focused on it. Thus it was with the train of which Osgood Kramer’s private car was a part.
In light of the harsh effect the wreck had on Rowena’s life, the transfer of wealth from Mr. Kramer was not viewed in a positive light, at least not initially, but that’s a story for another day. Now I want to look at some other wealthy individuals from the world of fiction.
Dave Astor, in an article for HuffPost, lists a number of fictional characters with big bucks. The table below lists some of them them but not in the correct order. See if you can match up the Book with the correct Author and Rich Character and then check out his article to see how successful you were.
| Book | Author | Rich Character |
| Jeeves in the Offing | Tom Wolfe | Gaston |
| Jane Eyre | P.G. Wodehouse | Sherman McCoy |
| The Ladies' Delight | Harriet Beecher Stowe | Bertie Wooster |
| The Bonfire of the Vanities | Emile Zola | Rochester |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | Colette | Octave Mouret |
| Gigi | Charlotte Bronte | Simon Legree |
