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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS The Last Garden in England |
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1. Each
of our heroines --- Venetia, Beth, Diana, Stella and Emma --- is a
transplant to Highbury. Discuss how each of them found “home” in
Highbury. What pivotal moments do they share? How do the relationships
they form help them each finally put down roots?
2. Class
plays a significant role in each of the time periods. How is Venetia’s
relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Melcourt different from the relationship
Beth and Stella have with Diana? How is it different from the
relationship between Emma and Sydney and Andrew? How are the
relationships the same? Are you surprised by how much or how little
changed over the course of 114 years?
3. Venetia
suffers a miscarriage, Diana loses her son in an accident and adopts
another, Stella never wanted to be a mother but finds herself a de facto
mother to Bobby, and Emma has a complicated relationship with her own
mother. Discuss how each woman navigates motherhood and how expectations
of motherhood shift from Venetia’s time to Diana and Stella’s and
finally to Emma’s in the present day. Do any of their challenges remind
you of your own mother or your experience with motherhood? How have
society’s expectations around motherhood changed? How have they stayed
the same?
4. All
of the women in the novel work and have ambition. Venetia writes that
she appreciates how Matthew “doesn’t treat me as though I’m made of bone
china or an oddity playing at being a gardener” (page 126). Stella
expresses to Diana, “I wanted to go to London. To work and then maybe do
more” (page 304). Diana herself is counseled by Father Devlin, “you are
a woman of independent means. You may choose to live the life you want
to lead. You could play the harp at every hour of the day, or you could
run this hospital” (page 293). On Beth’s first day as a land girl, she
“felt vital and useful for the first time in a long time” (page 33). And
in present day, Emma proudly runs her own business. Discuss how each of
these women breaks from expectation in order to pursue her ambitions.
How are their struggles the same, even a hundred years apart? How are
they different?
5. Matthew
and Henry (and Charlie, to some extent) support the creativity and
ambition of Venetia and Emma as they craft the gardens of Highbury
House. Compare these relationships, and how these men assume a role
secondary to the women. How does their support further the visions of
each woman? Can you think of moments of hindrance?
6. Diana
and Cynthia have a tense relationship. Cynthia is critical of Diana’s
grief, and Diana strains under Cynthia’s attempts to seize control of
her home and hospital in spite of Diana having once “been convinced that
her future sister-in-law was perfect” (page 263). Discuss how this
relationship differs from the other female relationships in 1944 (Diana
and Stella, Stella and Beth, Beth and Ruth) and what you think it
reveals about each of them. Where does their contempt come from, and how
do they each use it to compensate for frustrations they have? Is their
tension ultimately productive?
7. Which
time period do you wish you could visit? Who from the novel would you
most like to meet? Why?
8. Highbury
House and its gardens is the only constant through each of the timelines
in the novel. How is the house a character in its own right? What does
it teach and give to all of the people who call it home --- temporarily
or otherwise? How is the pull of it the same or different for each of
the characters? Are there any characters for whom it is more a prison
than a sanctuary? Is there a place in your life that you feel has given
you purpose, or perhaps driven you to look for more?
9. As
Venetia is designing Highbury House gardens, Matthew discovers her theme
for each of the garden rooms, remarking: “Each room represents the life
of a woman. The tea garden is where polite company comes to meet, all
with the purpose of marrying a girl off. The lovers’ garden speaks for
itself, I should think, and the bridal garden is her movement from girl
to wife. The children’s garden comes next. I would guess that the
lavender walk represents her femininity, and the poet’s garden stands
for a different sort of romance than the lovers’ garden.... Aphrodite,
Athena, Hera. All of the pieces in the statue garden will be depictions
of the female form” (page 149). And Venetia reveals that the winter
garden represents her death. Discuss how each of our heroines ---
Venetia, Beth, Diana, Stella and Emma --- fulfill each of these seasons
of a woman’s life. How do their embodiments of these stages differ? How
are they the same? Is there a universality to their experiences of
womanhood that are reflected in the garden plans?
10. The
book is divided into four sections, one for each season. Do the lives of
each narrator fit with each season? Discuss Venetia’s, Beth’s, Diana’s,
Stella’s and Emma’s transformations from winter to spring to summer to
autumn. How do each of their character developments mirror what each
season represents?
11. At
the outset of the novel, Venetia, Beth and Emma are all single, and by
the end, each of them has fallen for a man in the gardens of Highbury
House. They are all quite stubborn and, like the flowers in the garden,
take time to “bloom.” How are these romances similar? How are they
different?
12. While
Venetia’s career was exceptional for her time period, World War II
forced many women in 1944 to work when they otherwise might not have had
the opportunity to pursue a trade. How did the war impact the lives
Beth, Diana, Stella, Cynthia and Matron were able to lead? How did their
lives pave the way for women like Emma? How did the war change the lives
of women the world over? If you were a woman in 1944, which job would
you have liked to have had to help with the war effort?
13. Although
Venetia is an independent career woman in 1907, and proudly states, “I
have talent and artistry” (page 284), Mrs. Melcourt snaps back, “And I
have a husband. I hold all of the cards, Miss Smith” (page 285). Discuss
the ways in which female power has evolved over the last century. Was
Mrs. Melcourt correct? How does female power and agency shift by 1944?
By 2021? Does the “husband” standard still give women power today?
14. Beth
accepts when Colin asks her to be “his girl” (page 182), but once she
meets Captain Hastings, she chooses his hand in spite of Colin’s
expectations of her. Later, Colin confronts her and questions her
decision. He’s angry, and she retorts, “You just wanted a woman waiting
at home for you, and that might have been enough for me in Dorking, but
it isn’t enough for me now” (page 247). Do you think Colin was fair to
Beth? Do you think Beth was fair to Colin? Have you ever felt pressure
to commit to a relationship when your heart wasn’t fully in it?
15. Diana
suffers a great deal of loss during the war, losing both her husband and
her son. Her grief is acute, and it becomes clear that she also felt she
lost a part of herself when she married and became a mother. What do you
think of Bobby’s adoption? Of her choice to call him Robert, the given
name he shared with Robin? Of the choice to bury the adoption papers and
keep his true ancestry a secret? Do you think she ultimately finds
peace? If so, do you agree with how she found it?
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