Brother Jacob

Brother Jacob is a novella written by George Eliot and originally published in 1878.

David Faux is a young man who, on a visit to the city, discovers a high-class pastry shop. He imagines that confectioners must be very happy and popular and finds it very inspiring.

When the time comes for him to choose a trade, he becomes a confectioner.

However, he will soon discover that life as a confectioner is really hard and requires more work than he had imagined...

"Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been sufficiently considered; How is the son of a British yeoman, who has been fed principally on salt pork and yeast dumplings, to know that there is satiety for the human stomach even in a paradise of glass jars full of sugared almonds and pink lozenges, and that the tedium of life can reach a pitch where plum-buns at discretion cease to offer the slightest excitement?..."