50 pages • 1 hour read
Alice HoffmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1824, Rachel Pomié Petit
Rachel’s husband dies, and she wonders whether he thought about her or his first wife in his last moments of his life. She hopes that his first wife “was standing there waiting for him, her arms outstretched to hold him, and that his spirit lifted itself out of his body with joy” (94). After his unexpected death, Rachel no longer feels his first wife’s presence in the house. At twenty-nine, Rachel feels too young to be widowed. “On the last evening I would ever spend in my husband’s house, I felt a struggle within me. I was free, unmarried, but I was also trapped. This was the moment when I’d always imagined I could begin a new life; now I wasn’t so sure” (95).
With Isaac’s death, the family is low on money. Rachel can no longer afford to feed the pet donkey, so she and Jestine take it out into the woods to let it go. It doesn’t want to leave, and Rachel sobs over it. “Who would give him bread soaked with milk as a treat? Who would brush the dust from his coat? I didn’t believe I could love anyone, and yet I was in tears.
By Alice Hoffman
Blackbird House
Blackbird House
Alice Hoffman
Green Angel
Green Angel
Alice Hoffman
Half Magic
Half Magic
Edward Eager, N. M. Bodecker, Alice Hoffman
Incantation
Incantation
Alice Hoffman
Local Girls
Local Girls
Alice Hoffman
Nightbird
Nightbird
Alice Hoffman
Practical Magic
Practical Magic
Alice Hoffman
The Dovekeepers
The Dovekeepers
Alice Hoffman
The Invisible Hour
The Invisible Hour
Alice Hoffman
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
Alice Hoffman
The River King
The River King
Alice Hoffman
The Rules of Magic
The Rules of Magic
Alice Hoffman
The World That We Knew
The World That We Knew
Alice Hoffman