George Viccars is Eyam’s apprentice tailor, Anna’s lodger, and eventually her suitor. Having lived in London, he seems experienced and cosmopolitan to the villagers, which makes him attractive to Anna. He’s also kind to her sons and could introduce them to the lucrative tailoring trade. Anna’s incipient sexual desire for George helps rouse her from the emotional lethargy into which she drifted after the death of her husband, Sam, but their courtship is cut short when the plague arrives (carried in bolts of cloth George ordered from London) and makes him its first casualty.
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George Viccars Character Timeline in Year of Wonders
The timeline below shows where the character George Viccars appears in Year of Wonders. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2: Ring of Roses
...the financial hardships of the first winter of her husband’s death, Anna is thankful when George Viccars, a journeyman tailor new to town, becomes her paying tenant, supplementing the meager living...
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...greatly excited when Mr. Hadfield orders a box of cloth from London, which he and George store in Anna’s cottage. Even though he’s inundated with orders for clothes from the villagers,...
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Anna sleeps poorly, mulling over the possibility of marrying George. Preoccupied since her husband’s death with the survival of her small family, she realizes that...
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...sitting in the kitchen with Jane, the girl that watches them, rather than playing with George. Going upstairs, she finds George lying in bed, moaning with fever and disfigured by a...
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Part 2: The Thunder of His Voice
The morning after George’s death, Anna begins scrubbing the house and prepares to burn all his possessions. However, Anys...
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...her way, she stops at the Gowdies’ cottage to ask Anys about her relationship with George. Anys airily confesses that she slept with George but that it meant nothing to either...
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...with money or resources (including him) has escaped to the countryside. Anna immediately wonders if George’s fever was in fact the plague.
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Part 2: Rat-Fall
After George’s death are three uneventful weeks of lovely fall weather, and Anna stops expecting disaster at...
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...that the surgeon hasn’t seen any plague cases to judge against, and tells him that George had sores and “rosy rings” on his body before he died. At this revelation, the...
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Part 2: Among Those That Go Down to the Pit
...and Anna take on the case of nine-year-old Merry Wickford, the daughter of Quaker couple George and Cleath Wickford. The Wickfords moved to Eyam after they were run out of another...
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