Group Read: Arcadia Part 5, Chapters 45-55

Almost there! Here's another pretty cover and the character list!



Jay - 11 year old boy, belongs in Anterwold

Henry Lytten - 50-something academic, writing fantasy book which creates Anterwold, likes Rosie, the girl who feeds his cat

Thompson - cronie of Henry’s

Persimmon - cronie of Henry’s

Davies - cronie of Henry’s

Rosie Wilson - local girl, 15, feeds Henry’s cat

Professor Jenkins - Henry’s cat, named for horrible teacher in his past

Jack More - low-level security employee of scientific compound in the future

Angela Meerson - researcher and inventor of important tech at the scientific compound

Dr. Robert Hanslip - the ultimate bureaucrat and dictator, head of the scientific compound that employs (ed) Angela

Zoffany Oldmanter - rich and powerful head of a business that gobbles up others as investments, etc. Think Berkshire Hathaway but as run by Stalin.

Lucien Grange - sales rep/shill/fixer for Oldmanter

Alex Chang - very low level employee, worked for Angela doing data analysis and finding wayward people sent back in time.

Gunter - hapless janitor used by Angela to experiment with time travel, went mad in the 1890s and became a monk

Visitor - nameless agent of some government operating in Anterwold

Storyteller aka Scholar Henary - keeper of wisdom, tradition and all that is Objectively So in Anterwold (ha!)

Esilio - mythical figure/god in Anterwold

Callan Perelson - soldier for the Scholars and erstwhile forester/logger

Jaqui - hermit and denouncer of blind following of the Story

Etheran - deceased Scholar, Hanary’s mentor, Stoic in the vein of Cato

Portmore - WW2 to 1960 Head of British Intelligence

Samuel Wind - Also British Intelligence, somewhat of a Henry follower and possible frenemy.

Lady Catherine - Mistress of an independent domain in Willdon, Anterwold, widow of Thenald

Pamarchon - former heir of Thenald, now leader of disaffected malcontents, suspected of murdering Thenald

Gontal - Scholar

Volkov - Russian defector

The Very Reverend Horace Williams - cleric and friend to Henry

Renata & Beltan - married couple from Cister (Anterwold)

Aliena - singer, student of Rambert (Anterwold)

Rambert - Aliena’s teacher (Anterwold)

Sylvia Glass - leader in a Retreat
Emily Strang - Angela’s daughter (never have they met)

Antros - Pamarchon’s friend

Sgt. Maltby - 1960 copper, Special Branch

>1 Bookmarque: Re the covers: the pb I have has that cover; but while I was prowling the Bicester library today I noticed that they had both the pb with that cover, and the hardback with the cutout cover.

The cut out cover is clever and looks pretty. Wish I could see one IRL.

>1 Bookmarque: This is the edition I'm reading! I love the cover, the illustration wraps right around the book.

Sorry for my absence. Got caught up in some stuff. Am almost done with this section and wanted to post what I noted -

Ch 46 - Angela fears her world may be a story, too. I don't know that I caught that the first time around. How scary. That led me to think about The Story - did that fabled construction of order and morality come from Henry's head or just human desire in general?

Ch 48 - time among the outcasts and how like Fahrenheit 451 the idea of each person retaining a particular set of memories and skills for the time when they will be needed. After the powers that be destroy the museums and the libraries.

Ch 51-3 Henry is starting to realize about A's real nature/identity just as Rosie is tearing down Henary's closely held belief that the books don't contain prophesy. She tells him they are all characters in a story and he has read that whey she comes to reveal The Story's truth it will end. Now Henry has gone through the door. Oh my head!

Catherine's story about her transformation into a cultured and learned woman reminds me of Elizabeth's in Stone's Fall. Hm.