Anne Bradford is Colonel Bradford’s wife. She is timid and cowed by her husband. After the plague has subsided and the Bradford have returned to Eyam, Anne successfully gives birth to a child when Anna intervenes at a critical moment and saves both Anne and the baby. Because the child is the product of an affair and not actually the Colonel’s, its life is in danger as long as it stays in Eyam. So Anna offers to adopt Anne’s child and take it far away. Anne says she would have loved the child if allowed to, and allows Anna to take it.
Anne Bradford Quotes in Year of Wonders
The Year of Wonders quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Bradford or refer to Anne Bradford. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 3: Apple-Picking Time
Quotes
Why, I wondered, had the surgeon abandoned this case as hopeless? Had he persevered here he could easily have done what I was about to attempt. It came to me then that he must have arrived under instruction to be negligent.
Related Characters:
Anna Frith (speaker), Colonel Bradford, Anne Bradford
Related Symbols:
Childbirth
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anne Bradford Character Timeline in Year of Wonders
The timeline below shows where the character Anne Bradford appears in Year of Wonders. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Apple-Picking Time
...breaks down in weeping so pathetically that Anna can’t help consoling her. Elizabeth confesses that Mrs. Bradford doesn’t actually have a tumor, implying that she has become pregnant out of wedlock and...
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Part 3: Apple-Picking Time
In the Bradford pew, she finds Elizabeth praying. Elizabeth says that Mrs. Bradford has been in premature labor for a day, and the surgeon has given her up...
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Anna finds Mrs. Bradford bleeding profusely, attended by an inexperienced maid. Anna examines her and finds it’s a simple...
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Contrary to everyone’s expectations, Mrs. Bradford delivers the baby safely and stops bleeding. Looking in the baby’s eyes, Anna knows that...
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Anna prepares to ride to her cottage and fetch a nettle tonic to strengthen Mrs. Bradford ’s blood. However, when she turns back to the kitchen for a cloak, she finds...
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...herself, saying that the baby is illegitimate and she has to kill it so that Mrs. Bradford can retain the Colonel’s good graces. She says that she is only committing this crime...
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After haggling over logistics, Anna returns upstairs to inform Mrs. Bradford of the plan. Mrs. Bradford is grateful that the baby’s life will be spared; she...
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