*SPOILERS*
August 16, 2010 – August 22, 2010
The Aubreyad Press Gang Epic Adventure Week Seventeen
1. When Sophie and Stephen meet at the beginning of the chapter, they “looked so pleased that a casual observer would have sworn they were lovers”. Why are Sophie and Steven so fond of one another, and why is that fondness not romantic?
2. Sophie finds visiting the cottagers “wretched and shameful” because the women she’s visiting know more about life than she does. What does it say about her character that she feels this way, and that she expresses these feelings, in this time period?
3. What does it say about the state of Jack and Stephen’s friendship that Jack hesitates to borrow money from him?
4. What is the meaning of Heneage Dundas’ signal (“The Lord taketh no pleasure
in the strength of an horse”). Do you think it was the signal he meant to send? Does it relate to the novel in any way?
The Aubreyad Press Gang is engaged in a group read of the series. We have just started Post Captain. Feel free to join the discussion! You must be a registered member of the forums and the APG to post.
Questions by your captain.
Dr. Maturin suggests further reading:
Chapter 8, p.255. ‘Now for my poem,’ said Mr. Lowndes. ‘Attend! Attend! Arms virumque cano, etc. There, ain’t it capital?’
This Latin quote had puzzled me very much, given the 50 year gap since my last Latin class. I figured it had something to do with arms and dogs (cano). Actually, it is the first line in Virgil’s Aeneid: “I sing of arms (weapons of war) and of a man…” And why PO’B would have put this classical allusion in the mind of the poor old “Teapot” I have no clue, except that most educated gentlemen of the day would have been expected to have known some or all of that first stanza of the Aeneid by heart, which Stephen implicitly did. Hence, it was a sort of recognition signal, still functioning despite Mr. Lowndes’ growing dementia.