58 pages • 1 hour read
Marie BenedictLady Clementine
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 19-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 19 Summary
Content Warning: This chapter section depicts suicide and descriptions of miscarriages.
January 2 and March 21, 1921
London, England, and Cairo, Egypt
Clementine catalogs Winston’s ascent following his return from the front, especially after Lloyd George replaces Asquith as prime minister. Winston was instrumental in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Clementine’s fourth child, Marigold, is born right as the war ends.
Winston’s steady ascent means changing one house for another, and Clementine sees an echo of her own childhood. Clementine becomes exhausted and Dr. Gomez prescribes rest and relaxation away from the children and Winston. For almost two months, Clementine stays in France, until Winston calls her to join him in Cairo for the Middle East Conference.
During their trip to Egypt, Clementine, and Winston face threats again from protestors, who allegedly mean to kill them both. They narrowly escape danger as they return to their hotel. Winston includes Clementine in an official photo of the conference’s participants.
Part 3, Chapter 20 Summary
April 13-14 and June 29, 1921
London, England and Dieppe, France
Returning home after a long absence in France and Egypt, Clementine reunites with her children, and Marigold rebuffs her mother. Clementine receives a telegraph from her mother in France telling her that her brother Bill has died by suicide. She and her sister Nellie travel there and speculate about his reasons, including a gambling addiction that she and Winston have previously assisted with. Winston’s mother trips and falls, breaking her ankle. While she recovers, the break becomes infected, and the doctors are forced to amputate her foot. Jennie dies after further complications from the wound.
Part 3, Chapter 21 Summary
August 18-23 and September 14, 1921
Broadstairs and London, England
During their summer holiday in Chester, Clementine plays tennis with Mrs. Burden, an American guest of the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, when she receives news that Marigold has taken ill with septicemia.
Traveling to Broadstairs, Clementine attempts to nurse Marigold back to health. Her efforts fail, and Marigold dies. Later, at Marigold’s gravesite, Clementine chastises herself—thinking she’s failed as a mother and has given too much of her attention to Winston.
Part 3, Chapter 22 Summary
December 23-24, 1930
Westerham, England
Preparing for Christmas, Clementine takes inventory of the presents she’s wrapped and keeps in a locked cabinet. She begins to take account of the nine years that have passed since Marigold’s death, noting that a year later, she gave birth to Mary, her last child. Skeptical of her strengths as a mother, Clementine hires her first cousin, whom she calls Moppet, to take care of Mary.
Moppet and Clementine handle the Christmas decorations in Chartwell, a country house Winston buys without Clementine’s knowledge the year Clementine gives birth to Mary. Money continues to be a problem, as Winston loses his seat in parliament in 1929 after switching back to the Conservative Party. Clementine notes that their shared outlook on politics has crumbled, but she remains committed to the marriage and their domestic unity. She seeks to avoid the fate of her mother, who died alone in 1925.
Part 3, Chapter 23 Summary
August 30, 1932
Blenheim and Munich, Germany
In Germany, Clementine and Winston travel with Randolph, whose dismissive attitude affects Clementine’s mood. Clementine notes that Winston spoils Randolph. In Blenheim, Randolph ignores his father, as Winston discusses the past deeds of the Churchill family at the Battle of Blenheim. Their guests, Lieutenant Colonel Pakenham-Walsh and his wife take notice of Randolph’s attitude.
Researching for his book, Winston and his family travel throughout Germany, noticing the growing Nazi party everywhere. At dinner in Munich, Randolph recognizes Ernst Hanfstaengl, a familiar face from New York, who joins them for dinner and offers to introduce Hitler to the Churchills that night. Hitler fails to show up, but Churchill does ask Ernst why Hitler hates the Jewish people so much.
Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary
December 8, 1934
Westerham, England
Clementine notes her many disagreements with Churchill as they argue over home rule for India, which Churchill is against. The butler appears with a letter from Lord Moyne. He invites them on a trip to the East Indies on his yacht Rosaura for four months. Churchill declines immediately, but Clementine, whom Moyne invites separately, agrees to go.
Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary
February 24, 1935
Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Aboard the Rosaura eight months into her trip, Clementine and Terence Philip, another guest, flirt with each other. Clementine thinks about how she has changed as she shares champagne with Terence.
She and Terence decide to explore the Bay of Islands on a dinghy, and they swim together in the shallow water. As they enjoy their lunch onshore, they continue to flirt, and Clementine stretches toward him, ready to be kissed. He rebuffs her, insinuating that he enjoys men but not women. Terence praises Clementine, and his words move her regardless.
Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary
April 30, 1935
Westerham, England
Returning to Chartwell from her four-month voyage, Clementine reunites with her children and husband. Mary greets her enthusiastically, and Clementine catches up with Winston. As Clementine walks around the grounds, she remembers her last days in Bali with Terence, who asked her about her marriage. Clementine responded candidly, confessing that Winston drowns out her voice. After their walk, Terence bought her a dove to bring back to England. The dove, he told her, represents her transformation. Back in the present, Clementine worries she’s forgotten the bird, but finds it in her car.
Part 3, Chapters 19-26 Analysis
These chapters reflect and echo Clementine’s changing role as a wife and mother, as she reassesses her own place in Winston’s life and The Nature of Marriage and Partnership. The Clementine who chastised Venetia for her infidelities with Prime Minister Asquith gives way to a woman who sees the value of her marriage to an important man and the need for rest, desire, and enjoyment, which Winston cannot give her. Winston’s ambitions frustrate her conflicting desires—for a life of value and a hedge against instability—as his upward mobility signifies an uncomfortable return for Clementine to her childhood: “This constant shifting of homes, too reminiscent of my unhappy, itinerant childhood, layered strain upon my already stretched nerves. I struggled along for years, desperately trying to ignore my situation, until I suddenly couldn’t” (143). Nellie’s concern for Clementine’s health becomes her reality, as her doctor prescribes rest and time away from her home. While the doctor “did not say what everyone else thinks—that being married to Winston must be unfathomably challenging” (146), his cure for Clementine’s health clarifies the nature of her ailment. She is once again tossed around in the “sea of tempestuousness” (15) of a loved one, struggling to live up the domestic roles expected of her as a woman.
The weight of her responsibilities, however, does not break her, as a trip to Cairo following her convalescence demonstrates. Despite threats against her and Winston’s life, Clementine continues to support Winston, but her appraisal of her life and role has grown more nuanced, leading her to engage more directly with The Complexities of History and Gender. After Winston invites her to join the official photograph for the conference in Cairo, Clementine ruefully confesses, “my presence in the image is not appropriate, as I am a mere bystander to this critical juncture in the future of the region” (151, emphasis added).
In describing herself as “a mere bystander,” her appraisal of her role and life has changed from her pronouncements in St. Margaret’s following her wedding ceremony. She now questions if she has been “part of this or merely a bystander to world-shaping events?” before remarking, “History would likely record my husband, although I’ve played a significant hand in his affairs” (151, emphasis added). While Clementine knows she has “played a significant hand” in guiding Winston’s career and political successes, her roles as a woman and a wife mean that she may be relegated to the status of “a bystander to world-shaping events” instead of being seen as a key player within them, with only Winston becoming “record[ed]” by “History” (1521)..” As she muses upon the possibility of historical erasure or minimization of her role, Clementine exposes the dilemma she continues to face as an ambitious woman who can only exercise political power vicariously through her husband.
Tragedy visits Clementine and Winston again, as her youngest daughter Marigold grows ill while Clementine visits friends. After Marigold’s death, Clementine criticizes her own performance as a mother, implicitly linking herself to her own absent mother: “But I reserve the full force of my anger for myself. I should have been more cautious in guarding my child. I should not have allowed Winston to take precedence in my life” (171). As she accepts that Winston has consumed her attention, she also seems to accept that her pursuit of power and responsibility has had the same effect as Lady Hozier’s pursuit of pleasure did on her own childhood. They both have lost children now.
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