Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapter 19

• Barry declares that this final chapter shows how his fall is brought on by what he calls ungrateful scoundrels.
• He buys Bryan a horse. In contrast to Bullington, Bryan's rebelliousness is described in a favourable light. The horse turns out to be quite wild, and when Bryan disobeys his father and rides the horse, he falls off and dies. The sorrow brings Barry and Lady Lyndon together for a few months.
• Barry sells the ancient oaks of Hackton Castle for a pittance to raise money, then loses it gambling.
• Barry confines Lady Lyndon to the Castle under the watch of his mother. Now, close to destitution, he describes his mother in a more positive tone than at the height of his career. He intercepts letters written in lemon juice from Lady Lyndon to her former lover Sir George Poynings. Through Barry's secretary, Redmond Quin (the son of Nora and Captain Quin), she plans to escape but Barry finds them out.
• In constant need of money, Barry is given an offer on his mines from a London firm. They need Lady Lyndon to approve in person at their offices, and so Barry and Lady Lyndon goes to London in spite of Bell Brady's misgivings.
• The meeting turns out to be another scheme of Quin's. Barry is, after some roamings, thrown in the Fleet Prison where he lives out his days under the care of his mother.

Thackeray's commentator, G.M. Fitz-Boodle wraps up the narrative as follows.

• After an unsuccessful gambling career on the continent, Barry tries to blackmail Lord George but fails. He tries to get Lady Lyndon to flee with him, but is thwarted in this endeavour by Bullington, the rumor of whose death was false: "Bullington assaulted his step-father [...] and administered to him a tremendous castigation in the Pump-room" (OUP 2008, 308).
• After this encounter, Barry is sent from prison to prison, living on an annuity through Lady Lyndon. When she dies, this annuity is discontinued. Bullington dies in the Napoleonic Wars and all the Lyndon property passes on to Lord George, heir of the Tiptoffs.
• Barry dies from delirium tremens brought on by alcohol abuse.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 16, 17 and 18

Chapter 16

• Through Lady Lyndon's porter, Barry gains access to all her correspondence and is thus able to stalk and pursue her while making it appear that she is pursuing him.
• He kidnaps Lady Lyndon's lady in waiting, Miss Amalia Kiljoy, and marries her to Ulick. By this and through other threats he shows his determination to get Lady Lyndon.
• She flees to England but Barry goes on ahead, making it seem like she is following him. Her family and society picks up in this, which further drives her towards Barry. By using this and bribing her servants, Barry is finally able to marry Lady Lyndon on 1773, taking the name Barry Lyndon.

Chapter 17

• After a short introduction, the second part of the novel has Barry travel with Lady Lyndon to Hackton Castle where he spends his time abusing her and her assets by redecorating and gambling. Indirectly, he effectuates an old curse stating that when a certain rookery should fall, so should the castle.
• He buys back the marshy lands of his ancestors but still takes a dim view of Ireland.
• Barry and Lady Lyndon starts being apart. The latter is mistreated.
• He has bad luck at gambling but consorts with Dr. Johnson, Boswell and other famous personages (as referred to in the opening chapters).
• He enters politics and wins a seat in Parliament from Lord George of the neighbouring Tiptoffs, relatives of Lady Lyndon, who are exceedingly hostile towards him.

Chapter 18

• Barry finds Lady Lyndon intolerable and troublesome and only manageable when her son is used as leverage or when coaxed.
• His son by Lady Lyndon, Bryan, is portrayed with fondness and Barry tries to secure peerages for himself and his son. Bryan is fond of Bullington, who is sent to Ireland where he grows rebellious and embraces Catholicism. After two years he returns and is continually in conflict with Barry.
• The Tiptoffs keep spreading stories of Barry's mistreatment of Lady Lyndon, Bullington and the estate, stories which Barry characterises as slander. However, more often than not, these stories seem to be true.
• After having been beaten half to death by Barry, Bullington flees the house and volunteers for an English regiment in the American war of independence. This is pounced upon by the Tiptoffs, who thinks that Barry raised a regiment in order to have Bullington join it and be shot by a hired assassin. Later, he is said to die in just such a way.
• Meanwhile, disgraced at court and increasingly poor, Barry and his family goes to Paris where he spends more money, gambles, pawns heirlooms and cheats on Lady Lyndon. When France declares war on Britain in 1778, he returns and moves on to Ireland for financial reasons.
• News of Bullington's death are presented as one of the very few positive elements.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 13, 14 and 15

Chapter 13

• Barry meets Lady Lyndon, her husband Sir Charles and their son, Viscount Bullington.
• He gambles with Sir Charles and befriends him. Sir Charles complains about Lady Lyndon, who is an intellectual and admired bluestocking whom he does not love and who does not love him.
• Sir Charles is dying, so Barry decides to go for Lady Lyndon. His first step is to befriend her chaplain, Mr. Runt.
• He gets an Irish priest to write letters on transubstantiation for him and in this manner gets into Lady Lyndon's circle.
• Sir Charles realises what he is up to and is amused, though he tells Barry to marry for love. Barry, however, states that he is only after her money since she has no other charms.
• Sir Charles takes his good time to die, but as Barry is about to marry another wealthy widow, he does so and Barry returns to Ireland to find Lady Lyndon.

Chapter 14

• In Ireland, Barry visits all the places he had been to earlier and meets with several old acquaintances. He notes how everything seems to have diminished in quality and speaks slightignly of most things. Castle Brady has been abandoned, Tim, the servant has become tremendously fat, everyone has multiplied and Irish towns and society holds a lower standard than what he remembers from his youth.
• He pursues Lady Lyndon, bit gets lukewarm response. He imitates the extortionist Captain Fireball and threatens to kill her other suitors.
• He almost kills Lord George Poynings, her primary suitor in a duel over the pedigree of a horse and uses this to set an example for Lady Lyndon.
• Having met Ulick, he formulates a plan for his advances on Lady Lyndon.

Chapter 15

• Having been given advice by his uncle, he pays court to Lady Lyndon.
• After having wounded Lord George, he finally goes to visit his mother after a year in Ireland.
• He hints of his plan to his mother, then goes off to deal with Lord George, who maintains his suit from his sickbed.
• He professes his love for her to him, threatens to murder him, boasts (lies) of his feats and finally shows him Lady Lyndon's letters to him.
• The letters are almost similar to those sent to Lord George, who is disgusted and rejects Lady Lyndon. Barry meets her afterwards, follows her home, declares his love for her and threatens to publicise her letter if she does not agree to marry him.  Terror, he claims, "is not a bad ingredient of love" (OUP 2008, 218). Tipping the porter handsomely for his future business, he takes his leave.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 10, 11 and 12

Chapter 10

• Barry and his uncle leaves Mannheim for the Duchy of X__ where everyone gambles. He describes the Duke, his son Prince Victor and his wife Princess Olivia and moves on to the subject of marriage.
• He sets his sights on (the estate of) Countess Ida. She wants to marry a sub-lieutenant but the princess does not allow it. It is thought that the young Chevalier de Magny is her intended husband.
• In order to secure her hand, Barry amasses a considerable gambling credit from Magny. He then threatens to tell the Duke and Magny's grandfather, a respectable general whom he is to inherit. He also threatens to reveal that the princess has given him an heirloom, a famous emerald. He uses their liaison to break off the affair of Magny and Ida and effectively silences both the princess and Magny, using the latter as a pawn.

Chapter 11

• Barry ingratiates himself with the Duke and the Prince and gets betrothed to the Countess, much against her will.
• Meanwhile, the affair between the Princess and Magny continues. Barry gives Magny the emerald and he pawns it to a Jew who blackmails the lovers for money. Later, Magny is arrested for the attempted murder of this Jew.
• Being held in house arrest for six weeks, Barry and his Uncle learns of the events as they unfold.

Chapter 12

• The story changes setting, to London 1790 where Barry meets the mistress of the old Duke who tells him how said events unfolded.
• Monsieur de Geldern, the police minister, frames Magny for the attempted murder of the Jew. He is forced to commit suicide by poison in prison by Prince Victor, who has discovered the love affair.
• The old general de Magny dies from paralysis and grief, the old Duke dies from apoplexy and a pie and the princess is removed to another castle where the Prince has her secretly beheaded. The Prince then recalls all military companies from foreign service. Countess Ida marries the sub-lieutenant and gambling, opera and ballet is forbidden.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 7, 8 and 9

Chapter 7

• Barry enters the service of Captain de Potsdorff, nephew and heir to the minister of police, as an ordinance. He brags about his former merits to the Captain and then tells of his slyness in his service.
• He writes a letter to his mother. The answer makes him homesick.
• He overhears the police minister advising the Captain to withhold any promotion of him, and when he is sent to spy in the Chevalier de Balibary, who turns out to be his Roman Catholic uncle (Balibary being a latinisation of Ballybarry), he gives himself away on purpose.

Chapter 8

• Barry joins forces with his uncle and together they spend the days gambling. They work out small reports for the Captain.
• The Uncle is on a spying mission for the Austrians.
• They develop a gambling language and play several important personages.
• Barry reports back a pre-planned story to the Captain. When he reports that Prussian officers had been gambling with his uncle, the captain plans to have him arrested and sent out of the country. Since any promotion is denied him from the Captain's hand, Barry resolves to swap places with his uncle, bringing two pistols.

Chapter 9

• The scheme works and the Uncle soon joins Barry in Dresden, having caught the Captain trying to burglarise his red box of intelligence and had him sent off to Spandau prison.
• Barry decides to abandon military life and take up a full time gambling career with his uncle.
• He discusses whether gambling is disreputable and claims it is no more so than other professions.
• He tells many stories of success and failure, about the nobility they played and claims that women likes "to play [...] but not to pay" (OUP 2008, 130-131)
• An associate of theirs, the impostor Count Alessandro Pippi, drugs them and makes off with their funds. They pawn their clothes and jewellery and continue gambling.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 5 and 6

Chapter 5

• An officer in Barry's regiment, Lieutenant Fakenham, is struck by a bullet. Barry and a private carry him to Warburg, but on returning he is struck unconscious and robbed of the reward by the private.
• He is laid up in the same house as Fakenham and decides to go mad in order to stay there with nurse Lischen.
• He steals Fakenham's identity and deserts, fleeing to Cassel. Here, he meets a Prussian officer, Monsieur de Galgenstein who accompanies him towards Düsseldorf.
• On the way, Barry tells the story of Morgan Prussia, who joined Frederick the Great's "giant regiment". He pretended to have six brothers, left with money to enlist them and settled on a farm with the money.
• That evening, in a guest house, Galgenstein blows his cover and forces him to enlist in the Prussian army. In an interpolated tale, Barry describes how Galgenstein was later hanged as a spy. Barry is taken off towards the army compound.

Chapter 6

• In the transportation, Barry meets a pastor candidate who appears as an educated and morally clean version of himself. Upon arrival in a hospital, he tells his story and that of several of their travelling companions. Upon arrival he is drafted into a regiment in Pomerania.
• In the prison dorm, Barry gets acquainted with Le Blondin, a blonde Frenchman who later stages a mutiny, bringing the soldiers' burden to the forefront.
• He then meets Fakenham again and, having had a laugh at his expense, gives him a piece of advice which procures his liberty.
• Barry gives some general notes on being a soldier in the Seven Years' War. He prefers the Prussian army to the English and is rewarded by General Bülow. He keeps out of harm's way through threats.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter 3

• On his way to Dublin, Barry first meets Captain Freeny, the highwayman, then Mrs. Fitzsimons, an impostor. The Fitzsimons invite him to stay with them and during his stay, Barry's financial reserves are nigh depleted. By the time Barry sees through their scheme, they see through his.
• He is turned out of the house and debts and the threat of exposure forces him to join the army and thus flee Ireland.

Chapter 4

• Barry, headed for Germany and the Seven Years' War, keeps getting into squabbles on the ship. Fortunately, Captain Fagan boards the ship and keeps him with money and protection. He reveals to Barry how the duel was arranged and after a while gets him promoted to the rank of corporal. Fagan also keeps him with money.
• Barry narrates how the Seven Years' War would appear from the soldiers' point of view but confesses that he does not fully understand it. He doesn't have a high opinion of military life; he ponders desertion, gambles and gets into squabbles and speaks slightingly of British valour.
• He tells of his killing of a French colonel and his young ensign, Fagan's death and how he and some other soldiers came to a house, drank the wine of an old woman and her daughters then burned their house down. All this is narrated surprisingly dispassionately.

Barry Lyndon Plot Summary, Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1

• The Barries came to Ireland with Simon de Bary who was given a piece of land for his services during Richard II's military intervention. (This would have been in 1394-95)
• During Elizabeth I's reign, Roderick "Rory" Barry was in a feud and a passing band of English soldiers under Roger Lyndon offered to aid. Having successfully ended the feud, the English stay with the Barries, causing Rory's son Phaudrig to plot their deaths. His sister, however, who was enamoured of Lyndon warned him and the English killed the Barries and seized their land.
• Henry "Roaring Harry" Barry, protagonist Redmond Barry's father was famous for his skills at fighting, hunting and riding. He converted to Protestantism to be able to legally inherit the estate in the place of his older, Catholic brother who goes on to join the Jacobite uprising and feature prominently later in the novel. It also allows him to marry Bell Brady, the local beauty and Redmond's mother to be.
• On the point of being provided for by George II, Harry dies. Since he had spent the family fortune, Bell and Redmond returns to Ireland and is invited to stay with Michael Brady, Bell's brother at Castle Brady.
• When Bell's poverty becomes apparent she leaves Castle Brady on Mrs. Brady's insistence. In spite of this, his mother stays respectable, according to Barry.
• Barry is invited to stay at Brady's. Here, he is beaten by Mick, the oldest son, but fights back. He spends his days looking for and getting into fights.
• He claims he had great talents, but ran away from school because of the Latin lessons.
• He relates an interpolated episode where he meets Samuel Johnson, James Boswell and Oliver Goldsmith and bests them in discussion.
• He satirically comments on ladies' passivity in courtship and muses on a reversal of roles. In doing so he uses language of violence and conquest.
• Furthermore, he relates the story of his first love, his coquettish cousin Honoria Brady (christened by Jonathan Swift and eight years his senior).
• The country starts preparing for a possible French invasion and Barry meets a number of officers. Nora practices her coquetry on him, so much so that when she abandons him for the English Captain Quin, he takes desperate measures. He runs the horse he and Nora is riding into the river, nearly drowning them both and he ends up in a fever. While confined to his sick-bed, he writes poetry to Nora and discovers her and Quin together. He challenges him to a duel and Nora's reaction disgusts Quin, who tries to break off their relationship. At that moment, Mick, to whom Quin ows a sum of money, shows up and joins the fight.

Chapter 2

• Nora feigns a faint during which Quin escapes.
• Barry ponders his faith and bemoans his lot for some hours. Then, at dinner, he learns that Quin and Nora are in fact engaged to be married and in consequence, he flings a class of wine at Quin. This act serves as a duel challenge. Mick and his younger brother Ulick, who has tended to take Barry's side against his brother, follows Quin home, presumably in order to stop him from running away.
• Barry is followed home by another officer, Fagan, who unsuccessfully tries to dissuade him from duelling. Barry is offered to apologise and be paid by Quin to go to Dublin, but refuses the offer.
• At the duel, Barry is told to aim at Quin's neck. They use Quin's pistols and as Quin's death seems staged and Barry is urged to leave three times, the duel might be rigged.
• At Ulick's insistence, Barry adopts Redmond as a surname and leaves his mother's house for Dublin.

Source: Thackeray, W.M.: Barry Lyndon, Oxford Paperbacks, New Ed., 1999