This is a time when a broken limb is better amputated rather than risk infection but it's also a time when a man might prefer his injured wife be dead rather than "damaged". Slaves had no rights, women have not much else if they don't have a man, losing that man can mean losing everything, even if those things were what they brought to the marriage. This time period was not an easy time to be alive. I'm so glad the author chose to give these four the main focus and it's by showing their plights that we can see that each of them fight a tough fight almost everyday, even before this theater tragedy. It's impossible for me to pick a favorite out of these four people. But he has no time to give thought to his amazing feat since his family and friends are in great danger due to lies and the greed of those who can destroy his life and the lives of those who depend on him. In conjunction with another man, he performs in a miraculous fashion. The tragedy gives her a chance that she would never have otherwise but taking that chance could hurt those she loves most. She has spent her entire life being abused in every way by her master's son and now she has been given to the son. Slave, Cecily Patterson, attends the play with her mistress but she's got a lot on her mind. Jack wants nothing more than to tell the truth but it'll be at the risk of losing his life. Jack's late father was well respected in town and when Jack is disturbed when he realizes that the men he's been working with have no scruples about destroying the lives of others to keep the company and themselves from looking bad after the tragedy. The descriptions of the the new theater verify that it's a fire trap, with the rickety structure featuring windows nailed over to keep drafts out, people crushed together, and a stairwell that won't be able to handle a stampede of frightened humans.įourteen year old orphan, Jack Gibson, loves the theater and is working as a stagehand for the theater company. The three story theater is packed with over six hundred people. The cast of characters is huge but by keeping the chapters short and moving from one of the main characters to another often, I was able to keep up with the story easily.Īs a widow, Sally Henry Campbell spends time with her brother-in-law and his wife and despite the extremely cold and windy weather, the trio is attending two plays put on by the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company. The story focuses on four people and those around them. Known as the Richmond Theatre fire, The House is on Fire is historical fiction based on that tragedy. Richmond, Virginia in 1811 was the location of the worst urban disaster in U.S. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.īased on the true story of Richmond’s theater fire, The House Is on Fire offers proof that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy, we are offered our most precious-and fleeting-chances at redemption. When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he’ll have to buy her freedom first. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater’s managers, he’ll be offered a permanent job with the company. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn’t give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. At the city’s only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that’s done looking for enlightenment in a church. The General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia’s gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. It’s the height of the winter social season. The author of Florence Adler Swims Forever returns with a masterful work of historical fiction about an incendiary tragedy that shocked a young nation and tore apart a community in a single night-told from the perspectives of four people whose actions during the inferno changed the course of history.
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