ABSTRACT
After the death of Charlotte, the tone of Hickey’s memoirs shifts from remembrances of sometimes riotous, sometimes harrowing, sometimes sentimental and sometimes ethnographic episodes, to a greater focus on the author’s life as a respectable attorney and gentleman in Calcutta. More than ever, he channels his own identity through his characterization of certain individuals who appear disproportionately in his narrative, sometimes in lengthy letters that he reproduces. Above all, he wants his readers to know about and appreciate his close relationship with the most esteemed individuals in Bengal, notably Supreme Court judges William Dunkin and Henry Russell. A consistent theme runs through the second half of Hickey’s memoirs. It is the author’s self-reported genteel status and social respectability. In sharp contrast to the lazy layabout who slept at his desk and embezzled money from his father’s firm, Hickey frequently touts himself as one of the leading and most esteemed attorneys practicing before the Supreme Court in Calcutta. One habit of Hickey’s did not change, however, for he continued to spend well beyond his means. In his mind, the demands of genteel status left him no choice, so he poured money into building or remodeling exquisite dwellings and, of course, lavish entertainment. In 1808, he retired from the law in India and returned to England.
