In Chap­ter V of “Der­rick Vaughan–Novelist,” the nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues with Lawrence going to war, while the pro­tag­o­nist Der­rick stays in Bath, endur­ing the dis­com­fort of his father, Major Vaugh­an’s, unwel­come com­pan­ion­ship. Der­rick finds solace as the Major’s health appears to improve with sobri­ety and Bath water. How­ev­er, upon an unan­nounced vis­it, the nar­ra­tor dis­cov­ers Der­rick with a bro­ken arm, the cir­cum­stances of which are sus­pi­cious and lead to spec­u­la­tion about an alter­ca­tion with his father, who had relapsed into drink­ing.

The chap­ter delves into the strug­gles Der­rick faces in car­ing for his father while try­ing to main­tain his writ­ing career. Through an inci­dent of the Major obtain­ing and con­sum­ing brandy, lead­ing to an alter­ca­tion that results in Der­rick­’s arm injury, the sto­ry por­trays the tox­ic and dan­ger­ous envi­ron­ment Der­rick endures. The land­la­dy’s con­cern for Der­rick­’s safe­ty high­lights the sever­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, sug­gest­ing it’s unsafe for Der­rick to be alone with his father.

Despite his injury, Der­rick con­tin­ues his writ­ing with adapt­abil­i­ty, show­ing resilience by adapt­ing his writ­ing process to accom­mo­date his bro­ken arm. The chap­ter also touch­es upon Der­rick­’s social life and his reac­tions to hear­ing about Fre­da Mer­ri­field, indi­cat­ing a poten­tial roman­tic inter­est, and his lit­er­ary career, espe­cial­ly the process and antic­i­pa­tion sur­round­ing the pub­li­ca­tion of his nov­el “Lyn­wood’s Her­itage.”

“Lyn­wood’s Her­itage” faces a mix of crit­i­cal recep­tion, with some pos­i­tive reviews and oth­ers sharply crit­i­cal, affect­ing Der­rick per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly. Despite the antic­i­pa­tion and effort, the nov­el does not achieve com­mer­cial suc­cess, lead­ing to Der­rick­’s pro­found dis­ap­point­ment and reflec­tion on his efforts and sac­ri­fices. This chap­ter vivid­ly illus­trates the per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al chal­lenges Der­rick faces, encap­su­lat­ing themes of resilience, the com­plex­i­ties of famil­ial rela­tion­ships, and the strug­gles of a bud­ding nov­el­ist against the back­drop of per­son­al tur­moil and Vic­to­ri­an soci­ety’s expec­ta­tions.