Martin Eden

Ruth’s heart begins to soften toward Martin. His reticence to express his love for her causes him to subconsciously woo her, mostly through small gestures of physical contact. As Martin realizes that his efforts are working, he becomes more daring. He cures Ruth’s headache through a massage technique he learned in Japan and Hawaii, earning Ruth’s deep gratitude.

Martin and Ruth go on a moonlit sailing excursion with Ruth’s brothers and Olney. Against her better judgment, Ruth is overcome by attraction to Martin’s strength, and she leans against him as he steers the boat. Martin is ecstatic, but neither of them says anything.

Ruth later reprimands herself for giving in to her feelings for Martin. She resolves to never let him speak of his love for her.

Martin and Ruth sit reading poetry on their favorite hillside outside Oakland. Ruth’s impulse to lean against Martin overcomes her. He puts his arm around her, and they share their first kiss. Ruth admits that she loves Martin; she confesses that she only realized it when they kissed. Martin is elated that she finally reciprocates his feelings. Ruth cries when she thinks about his past, recognizing that he has been with other women. Martin truthfully tells her that she’s the first woman he has ever loved. Despite her newfound happiness, Ruth is apprehensive about what her family will think. She wants to marry Martin. He assures her that they’ll win over Mrs. Morse. Even if the rest of the world disapproves, they’ll have each other.

Mrs. Morse is unhappy about Ruth and Martin’s engagement. She explains the negative aspects of marrying Martin, but it’s to no avail. Mr. Morse tells her it was inevitable that Ruth would fall in love with Martin. He believes that the more Ruth sees of Martin, the less she’ll love him, and he suggests exposing Ruth to young men of her own social standing. In the end, the family tacitly accepts the engagement, certain that it won’t last.

Martin rents a small room in North Oakland and buys an oil burner to cook his own meals and save money. This pleases Ruth; it reminds her of Mr. Butler. However, to Ruth’s dismay, Martin plans to commit himself fully to his writing career, taking up freelancing hackwork to pay the bills. Ruth finds this plan degrading. She wants Martin to learn shorthand and work in Mr. Morse’s law office, hoping that he can become a lawyer.

Martin’s new landlord is Maria Silva, a Portuguese immigrant and hard-working widow who provides for her children by taking in laundry and selling dairy products from the two cows she keeps. Martin admires her strength and tenacity. His room is tiny but has all he needs. He lives a frugal, reclusive life, writing three times as much as an average man could. He begins writing critical essays as well as fiction, using the scientific principles that have become dear to him.

Martin’s financial situation is dire. The occasional dinner at the Morses’ or Gertrude’s house barely sustains him when the stores cut off his credit. He’s forced to pawn his watch and bicycle and uses some of that money to buy stamps to mail out his manuscripts.

He’d asked Ruth for two years to make something of himself before their marriage, yet he still has nothing to offer. He knows that she’s disappointed. Martin accuses her of upholding the establishment rather than being open to new ideals. He rails against literary critics and English professors who uphold the status quo. To Ruth, this is blasphemy. Martin doesn’t push the issue. He’s coming to realize that he has a depth of knowledge beyond her comprehension. His ability to hold his own in intellectual arguments privately surprises Ruth.

Unaccustomed to poverty and deprivation, Ruth interprets the changes in Martin’s physical appearance as a sign of the seriousness of his efforts. Maria Silva, however, recognizes the signs of hunger and how hard he works, though she doesn’t understand the nature of his work. She likes Martin and finds ways to feed him when she can.

One night, Maria shares a jug of sour wine with Martin. She’s amazed that he has been to the Azores, where she was born, and to Hawaii, where she migrated with her family. He has even been to Maui, the island where she married her husband. Martin has even met some of the people on Maui that Maria knew. Martin promises that when he achieves fame, he’ll buy shoes for all Maria’s children and help her realize her dream of owning a dairy.

Martin pawns his good suit. He now has no presentable clothes, so he can’t visit Ruth. He takes the civil service exam for the railroad and passes, but he must wait to be called in for duty.

Martin’s story “The Ring of Bells” is accepted for publication by the Transcontinental. However, he’s dismayed to learn that the payment for the story is $5, not $100 as he had speculated. He wants to give up writing. He envies Joe, traveling and living a carefree life as a transient.

Martin falls ill due to shock and disappointment.

Martin contracts the flu. Maria takes care of him; he’s not used to being sick because of his normally robust constitution. He recovers somewhat when a publisher, White Mouse, offers to buy the rights to his horror story “The Whirlpool” for $40 if he allows them to make alterations to it. The pay rate works out to $.20 per word, just as he had reckoned before the Transcontinental accepted “The Ring of Bells.”

Ruth and Arthur visit Martin, causing a stir in the Silva household and their working-class neighborhood. Maria Silva, her house, and Martin’s living conditions privately disgust Ruth, and she chastises Martin for smoking so much. Martin agrees to stop smoking. Ruth nearly asks him to give up on writing but refrains.

Martin and Ruth converse flirtatiously. Martin reveals that he once contracted breakbone (Dengue) fever while unwittingly visiting a colony of people with leprosy. Ruth is jealous of the half-Chinese woman who helped Martin heal from the sickness. She realizes that her jealousy is silly, but it comes from her love.

Ruth’s visit raises the whole neighborhood’s estimation of Martin.

Martin’s streak of good fortune continues. A Chicago newspaper accepts “Treasure Hunters,” while Youth and Age accepts his serial for boys. The pay is relatively low for the word count, but these were his first two attempts at writing, marked by the clumsiness of his untested literary strength.

Having reclaimed his good clothes, he can finally visit Ruth again. Mrs. Morse has begun a campaign to sway Ruth away from Martin. The household is full of successful and eligible young men. Martin holds his own among them. To Ruth’s chagrin, Martin gets in a deep conversation with Professor Caldwell, a young professor under whom she studied in college. Martin critiques his reasoning, claiming that his arguments are weakened by a lack of understanding of biology. Caldwell concedes that Martin is correct. Martin privately tells Ruth that Caldwell is the most intelligent person he has conversed with; he once thought all prominent people must be like him. Ruth chides him for monopolizing the professor when other people want to speak to him. Despite admiring the man, Martin believes he’s someone who has gotten to the truth of life only to turn away. Overall, the evening makes Martin feel conflicted: He feels like he’s on equal footing with the people at the top of society but is disappointed in their company.