Reading and discussing The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton,
was great fun! Cindy asked us to prepare for the discussion, and she came
prepared to reward us for our preparation. She had asked us to consider three
of the discussion questions from the back of the paperback copy of the book:
Eliza, Nell, and
Cassandra all lose their birth mothers when they are still children. How are
their lives affected differently by this loss? How might their lives have
evolved had they not had this experience?
Is The Forgotten Garden a love story? If so, in what way(s)?
In what ways do Eliza's
fairy tales underline and develop other themes within the novel?
At the meeting, Cindy
first gave us some background information. She started us thinking with an
explanation about the mourning brooch that Eliza had hidden in the wall of the
little room at the top of the stairs where she had lived with her mother and
brother. A mourning brooch was traditionally made with plaited hair. Cindy
suggested we think of the story as a plaiting of the lives of the three main
characters: Eliza, Nell, and Cassandra.
Then Cindy pulled out the
heavy artillery: A poster with background and guidance for each of the
questions for discussion, plus a chart of the relationships between the
characters and generations. She assigned us to three groups, each to
discuss one of the questions for a few minutes and report the group's ideas to
everyone.
My group talked about the
third question, Eliza's fairy tales. Cindy's poster listed 3 fairy tales that
were included in the story and 2 that were mentioned. Our group was inspired
and had some good ideas! The Crone didn't need her eyes; she just needed
someone to care for her. The parallel was visible in the lives of all the
women. I think we agreed that Nell was most like the Crone, with Cassandra the
princess carrying Nell's memory and mystery forward. The story called The Changeling
was manifest in Adeline (the evil queen) keeping Rose hidden and maybe even
training her to be sickly so she wouldn't be interested in independence, and
Rose finally flying the coop. The Golden Egg story was obvious in its symbolism;
this symbolism was made part of the Forgotten Garden story when the reader
learned that Nathaniel had removed the Golden Egg story from Nell's copy of
Eliza's book.
As concerns the love
story, there were several in the book. There were unanswered questions, too, as
to whom Eliza might have loved and why she didn't. About the women all losing
their mothers, someone said Nell's loss was the most tragic. Then there was
some discussion as to whether Nell had over-reacted by rejecting her adoptive
family when she suddenly found out she wasn't who she thought she was. My notes
on these questions are minimal. I think I got too caught up in the
presentation. If you want to post some more detailed notes, please do.
Cindy had another poster,
listing some of the medical themes she noticed throughout the book that had
affected the characters in life-changing ways. This was a very interesting perspective on the book. I was impressed that Cindy thought of it! This kind of insight is why we come to book discussion meetings! The medical conditions included typhoid on Nell's
ship; Georgiana's tuberculosis; scarlet fever as a foil for Ivory's disappearance;
Adeline's blood poisoning (stuck by a Rose in the forgotten garden?); Sammy's
unspecified disability; and Linus's lameness, perhaps caused by polio.
Thanks to Cindy for
helping us interpret this page-turner full of plot twists. I think we all left
the meeting with a broadened understanding and increased appreciation of the book's themes and depth.
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