THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN
By Kate Morton
(Tansley Reads Rating: 69%)
Icebreaker:
What role did fairy
tales play in your childhood?
Questions:
1.
The book begins with three
important events: 1) the child on the
ship; 2) Nell’s 21st birthday; and 3) Nell dying? What are your thoughts on this order of the
events? Would you have organized it a
different way? Why?
2.
Did Hugh and Lil make the right
decision when they kept Nell?
3.
(two parts)
(a)
On the night of her
twenty-first birthday, Nell’s father, Hugh, tells her a secret that shatters
her sense of self. How important is a
strong sense of identity to a person’s life?
Was Hugh right to tell her about her past? How might Nell’s life have turned out
differently had she not discovered the truth?
(b)
Why to do you think Nell’s
father was compelled to tell her the truth?
4.
Eliza, Nell and Cassandra all
lost 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?
5.
Nell believes that she comes
from a tradition of “bad mothers”. Does
their belief become a self-fulfilling prophesy?
How does Nell’s relationship with her granddaughter, Cassandra, allow
her to revisit this perception of herself as a “bad mother”?
6.
In what ways do Eliza’s fairy
tales underline and develop other themes within the novel?
7.
(two-parts)
(a)
Why was Eliza so willing to do
anything for Rose – e.g. bear a child for her?
(b)
Why were others, like Adeline
and Nathaniel, also willing to cater to Rose?
8.
Why to you think Rose had such
an obsession with having a child?
9.
After Nell’s death, Cassandra
receives the deed to the cottage. A note
is attached saying “For Cassandra, who will understand why” (p.59). What do you think Nell meant by this note?
10.
As we just discussed, Cassandra
was given a family mystery with a note that read “who will understand
why”. If you were given a similar note
from a family member along with a family mystery of your own, how would you
respond or react?
11.
Did anyone pick up on the scene
where Mrs. Hodgson Burnett attended the garden party after Rose’s return from
New York, and her interest in the garden was “piqued” (p.381)? For those of you (like me) who did not know,
Hodgson Burnett was the author of The
Secret Garden. Why do you think the
author made such a connection between the two books?
12.
Is The Forgotten Garden a love story or a tragedy? If so, in what way(s)?
13.
Is it possible to escape the
past, or does one’s history always find a way to revisit the present?
14.
What were your overall
impressions of the book? Were there any
questions or subject matters we missed that you wish to raise?
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