When Authors Place Their Bet on Debt

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A current major issue in my town of Montclair, New Jersey, is a massive school-budget deficit. As I continued to write about that each week in my “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column, thoughts came to mind about fictional people facing debt and related financial troubles — a situation that provides much dramatic fodder while often evoking sympathy for those money-challenged characters.

Not knowing in advance that it would fit this topic, I happened last week to read a Richard Paul Evans novel called The Walk in which Seattle ad executive Alan Christoffersen loses his home, his car, and most of his other possessions because of huge medical bills for his paralyzed-in-an-accident wife McKale, being cheated by his work partner, and other reasons.

When reading about any character in fiscal peril, we wonder how they will react and what the ultimate outcome for them will be. In Evans’ 2009 novel, a despairing Alan ends up starting a long walk to Key West, Florida…nearly 3,500 miles away!

The pricey and problematic health-care system in the U.S. — the world’s only “developed” country without some form of government-run national insurance for all — also takes a huge financial toll on Shep Knacker when his wife Glynis becomes ill in (Ms.) Lionel Shriver’s compelling part-satirical novel So Much for That (2010).

Moving from the 21st-century United States to 19th-century France, we have Honore de Balzac’s 1837 novel Cesar Birotteau — whose Parisian title character is a successful shop owner and deputy mayor who becomes bankrupt after getting manipulated into property speculation. He spends the rest of the book on a mission to restore his honor by trying to pay off his debt.

A later French novel, Emile Zola’s The Drinking Den (1877), features another initially successful businessperson: Gervaise Macquart, who manages to open her own laundry through very hard work. She is happily married until her husband’s life spirals downward after he falls from a roof. Coupeau’s descent drags the family into poverty and alcoholism.

In-between those books came Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary, in which the adulterous title character gets into serious debt spending on luxuries. When the debt is called in and can’t be paid, Emma Bovary decides to…

Over in 19th-century England, there was Charles Dickens’ also-published-in-1857 novel Little Dorrit — whose title character (first name Amy) was born and grows up in a debtors’ prison where her father William has been incarcerated. Partly inspired by Dickens’ childhood.

Back in France, Guy de Maupassant’s classic 1884 short story “The Necklace” is about a woman who loses a glittery borrowed necklace and goes into years of life-ruining debt after paying for a replacement. The tale has one of the most famous surprise endings in literature.

Authors themselves have of course also experienced money troubles. For instance, Sir Walter Scott in later life tried to frantically write his way out of debt after a banking crisis caused the collapse of a printing business in which the Scottish author had a large financial stake.

Also later in life, Mark Twain filed for bankruptcy after years of investing heavily in a mechanical typesetter that didn’t catch on. He survived financially and paid off debt by giving up his ornate Hartford, Connecticut, mansion and later embarking on a worldwide speaking tour.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this theme?

Misty the cat says: “I didn’t know my apartment complex was zoned for a car dealership.”

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I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…as well as a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, and includes many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about my local Township Council’s welcome vote to support a proposed state bill to protect immigrants from the Trump regime — is here.

111 thoughts on “When Authors Place Their Bet on Debt”

  2. Weirdly – it seems that I was “unsubscribed” to your blog. Not sure what’s happening there. Anyway – the example that springs to mind for me – and it’s proper literature for a change – is Silas Marner when his savings are stolen. This though turns out to be a good thing though since it forces him to value Eppie the young girl he adopts.

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    • Thank you, Joe! Sorry about that unsubscribed thing — I certainly didn’t do it. 🙂 Blog platforms can be squirrelly sometimes. Anyway, great mention of “Silas Marner,” which I think is a great novel by one of the best novelists ever. Money, or lack of, definitely had a huge impact on the title character’s life.

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  3. I can’t think of any additional example, but I enjoyed reading yours. I follow a local photographer on Instagram, Gale Filter,who goes around asking people why are they homeless and the stories are not dissimilar to the stories you mentioned. Also, in “ The People of the Abyss”, Jack London asks homeless people about how they ended up on the streets and a story of injury or disease often surfaces.

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    • Thank you, Alessandra! The photographer you follow is doing important work! And while I haven’t read any nonfiction writing by Jack London, several of the novels of his I’ve read definitely have an understanding about what impoverished people face.

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  4. Dave,

    I had to think on this one. The second thing I came up with was The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

    It’s an epic story. Although it focuses on one man’s (Wang Lung and his family) rise from poverty to wealth, other wealthy families fall from luxury to the street.

    And his rise to wealth is not a straight line. From a healthy farm life to abject poverty due to nature (the locusts freaked me out the most, as they actually ate through the mud dwellings) – to begging in the streets, then to massive wealth… in the end his sons squander it all.

    The first thing I thought of was a short by Stephen Leacock written in 1910 – My Financial Career.

    The reality behind the humour is dated, but it’s still funny to me. The Canadian Film Board animated it, years ago. It is word for word.

    https://www.nfb.ca/film/my_financial_career/

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    • Thank you, Mike! A real shame when talented writers such as the ones you mentioned die in poverty — because their work doesn’t sell as much as it deserves to and/or poor personal choices, etc.

      Then there’s the case of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who gave up paying work and went into poverty for 18 months to concentrate on writing his debut novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” That “bet” paid off, of course.

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  6. Just mentioning about some indie writers who have self-published books – like Audrey Driscoll who did well, just down there (pointing). I’m pretty sure they (like me) have not spent much. Then flinging them wherever they land on Amazon (mainly eBooks), and that’s fine, I would say. I have only a small drawer under my table where my own books lie undisturbed.

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  7. Interesting post and delightful comments, Dave. I don’t have a book that comes to mind, but I can say I am grateful that Mark Twain’s house is established now as a Hartford landmark which we can visit. It even has a Paige Compositor on display. My daughter gave me an evening of writing in the library of that house, as a birthday gift when I was beginning my writing journey.

    Another author who didn’t write about debt, but experienced it, is Edgar Allen Poe. I believe the chief cause of his debt was gambling.

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    • Thank you, Dan! Mark Twain’s home IS an incredible destination. (I’ve visited it and its adjacent museum twice, and have seen the ill-fated Paige Compositor.) And a bonus is Twain’s home being next to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home. A gift evening of writing in Twain’s home — that must have been an amazing experience for you!

      And, yes, Poe faced a lot of impoverishment, much of it of his own doing (as you noted). Alcoholism and bad health didn’t help, either.

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  8. Hi Dave! I’m tempted to say I really like this post! But I don’t want you to conclude that I didn’t really like your previous posts!!! That would be very incorrect!!
    However, I really enjoyed this week’s post!! I particularly perked up reading the term ‘fiscal peril’ which is new to me, but brilliantly describes the subject matter!
    All the books you listed sound fantastic, especially, ‘Madam Bovary’
    as I’m keen to find out what she did to get herself out of the red!!! ☺
    Great, topical post Dave! A lot of good books to delve into! Thank you.
    All the best for a great week! Sharon

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    • Thank you, Sharon! Glad you’ve been enjoying various posts, and I totally understand when a reader likes certain ones better than other ones. 🙂 I guess the post IS rather topical given the glaring and growing gap between the rich and the poor these days. 😦 (A topic we’ve recently discussed.)

      “Madame Bovary” is definitely a classic — among quite a few terrific novels by various 19th-century French authors (Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, Hugo, Dumas, George Sand, etc.).

      Hope you have a great week, too!

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  9. Lily Bart from The House Of Mirth gets herself in a fair financial pickle as does Mildred Pierce who gets out of one just to get in another. . I really like the writing of the financial mess in both these books, the way that once things were out of control, they just continued to get worse. .

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  10. Great post, as usual, Dave. I’ve read many of the great texts you name here, although I have the Shriver book on my TBR and need to get there soon. I’m looking for books to add and also as usual will get back to you. To be going on with is one of my favourite books, oft-mentioned by me, ‘New Grub Street’ by George Gissing, where impecunious author Edwin Reardon struggles with writers’ block whilst trying to support his wife and child. A lesser character, even-more-impoverished author Harold Biffen, lives in a garret and pawns his overcoat in winter, tutoring to live while he writes his precious novel. He risks death in a building fire to rescue his manuscript. Have-and-Have-Not is a major theme of the story. Going back in time, Bassanio in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ being hard-up and needing funds to woo an heiress drives the action of the story. Oh, and there’s Jean Valjean stealing a loaf to feed his family forming the background of ‘Les Miserables’., plus the fall from riches of the eponymous protagonist of Balzac’s ‘Pere Goriot’. Money makes the world go round, unfortunately, and also makes for some excellent reading. I’ll leave it there and come back if and when I think of any others. Thanks for this, and have a great week. 🙂

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  12. The problematic healthcare system in the US has always struck me as very difficult to navigate and unfair. Richard Paul Evans novel, The Walk, sounds like a great read, Dave! I agree with Rebecca about Fascinating Facts being a most excellent book, especially as a Christmas present!💜

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    • Thank you, Ada! “…very difficult to navigate and unfair” is sadly a REALLY accurate description of the U.S. healthcare system. What a too-profit-driven mess. 😦

      “The Walk” is very good, albeit more a B+ than an A. I believe it has several sequels that continue the titular “stroll”; the first novel doesn’t leave Washington State.

      I greatly appreciate the kind words about “Fascinating Facts.” 🙂 Thank you! I should probably do a social media blurb next month about the holiday-gift thing you kindly mentioned. 🙂

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  14. Hi Dave, I’m reading A House Full of Daughters by Juliet Nicolson, the granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West. She traces her ancestry back across seven generations of amazing women. My daughter gifted the book for my birthday. It’s Bloomsbury Group context literature to me, meaning a mandatory read, but highly recommended regardless. Anyway, lots of monetary vicissitudes and preoccupations in this book. Brace yourself.

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    • Thank you, Dingenom! That memoir sounds fascinating! Certainly a renowned family tree there. One can just imagine all the good and bad stuff that happened over seven generations. Love the title, too.

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  15. One can have health insurance and still get high medical bills. What about this despicable administration wanting to gut the ACA making insurance costs out of reach of millions by raising premiums to exorbitant levels,thus not being able to have insurance.

    Most of the money the government spends could be 1 out of 4 dollars is healthcare. Note all health-care costs for everyone will increase if Republicans do not meet my our party at the table for subsidies to continue. Reps have no other program other than ACA and red states will he effected at higher premiums, those folks who voted DJT to help them with grocery prices. 🙄

    To get to your book/story topic, I planto read The Necklace this afternoon, thank you for the blog:)

    Michele

    E & P way back

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    • Thank you, Michele! So true that people often pay high medical bills even when insured. The fact that the U.S. doesn’t have national health insurance for all is an absolute disgrace, and of course the Trump regime is making things worse, as you note — including for his own voters, as you also note.

      I think you’ll find “The Necklace” pretty compelling. It’s O. Henry-like ending predates O. Henry. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! That ending packed quite a punch, didn’t it? I think I first read “The Necklace” in a high school class.

      And financial woes can definitely make for powerful novels. Among the ones in that “category” I didn’t mention were “The Grapes of Wrath,” Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” and Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth.”

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        • Yes, Rosaliene! Reading something great as a teen indeed sticks in one’s mind for decades. I’ve never reread “The Necklace” since then, but can still remember the basic story.

          I’ve never read “The Big Short,” but know it’s a very admired book.

          That economic crash “helped” cause me to lose my full-time journalism job (2008) and eventually my house (2014), so I “lived” that crash like millions of others. Of course, most of the bankers and other elites that caused that crash suffered no consequences and even ended up getting richer. 😦

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          • Dave, I’m saddened to learn that you were also hit by the subprime financial crisis 😦 To quote Mahadai Das from her poem “My Final Gift to Life” (Guyana, 1982):
            “Who can inhale the stench of wickedness / or dwell whole in this leprous air?”

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            • Thank you, Rosaliene! It took a while, but things turned out for the best. Freelancing gives me more flexibility — and time at home — than a full-time job did, and I’m happy to live in an apartment complex where I no longer have to do things like yard work and house repairs. 🙂

              Mahadai Das has a very impressive way with words! Thanks for excerpting her poetry here.

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  19. Dave, another powerful topic! Stories of debt have been with us for centuries because money, too much or the lack of it, has always tested the human spirit. Shakespeare himself filled his plays with people caught in financial traps: Antonio and Shylock bound by a dangerous contract, Falstaff dodging his creditors with wit and charm, and London’s debtor prisons appearing in the background like a warning bell. Writers return to these stories because debt is never just about numbers. It’s about fear, hope, survival, and the fragile choices people make when they’re backed into a corner. These books become cautionary tales, reminding us how easily gambling, consumerism, or simple bad luck can pull someone under.

    I agree! We read these stories/books not only for the drama, but because they help us understand the world we live in now. Adam Smith said that no society can be truly happy if most of its people are in poverty. Literature keeps returning to this truth in every era, including our own. Thank you for a great topic that prompted a wonderful follow-up discussion.

    “What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?” Adam Smith

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Yes, money — and, in some cases, debt — is all over literature as it’s all over real life. Great examples from Shakespeare, and I thought these very well stated lines of yours were totally on point: “Writers return to these stories because debt is never just about numbers. It’s about fear, hope, survival, and the fragile choices people make when they’re backed into a corner. These books become cautionary tales, reminding us how easily gambling, consumerism, or simple bad luck can pull someone under.”

      Last but not least, I agree with the words of Adam Smith that you cited.

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  20. Hi Dave, there are a lot of books that feature financial problems that lead to unfortunate circumstances for the characters. War and Peace features the Rostov family who gradually lose their fortune due to poor financial management and gambling debts. Tess of the d’Urbervilles gets into trouble due to the accidental death of the family horse that leaves them in financial distress. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s disgrace leads to her being cast out of the village and living in poverty on the outskirts of society.

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  23. Sir Walter Scott’s staggering debt of honour, instead of bankruptcy route that can damage innocent creditors… In longhand too – Imagine the agonies of writer’s cramp.

    Debts, of any kind ? Trollope, every time, from Barchester and the Plllisers to The Way We Live Now.

    Including his fairy tale, Dr Thorne, and the terrific American heiress, , Miss Dunstable. of ‘ Ointment Hall;’ ,

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    • Thank you, Esther! Yes, Scott’s writing hand got quite a workout as he endlessly wrote. He could have used a computer… And I appreciate the other debt-related examples! Someday I need to read more Trollope. (I’ve only gotten to two his novels, long ago…)

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  24. You’ve already mentioned LITTLE DORRIT, but when I think of debt, I also think of Wilkins Micawber from DAVID COPPERFIELD. He, too, spent time in debtors’ prison. He’s famous for always thinking good luck was just around the corner (“Something will turn up”), but instead, he keeps getting himself and his friends into trouble. At least he redeems himself at the end of the book by exposing Uriah Heep as a villain.

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  25. I liked those stories about famous writers frantically trying to write themselves out of debt. It’s however my personal believe that most contemporary writers are writing themselves into debt. After having run a PR campaign of three weeks for my latest novel, and spend several hundreds, I realized that I can’t compete with the PR machines of the traditional publishers and book distributers. 106 copes went over the counter and when I stopped to feed this money eating PR campaign, the sales also ground to a standstill. I don’t care about sales anymore: I’m an artist, not a sales person. I don’t do this to become rich or famous, but to grow as a person.

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