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Post by peacemama on Jan 20, 2022 6:08:10 GMT -5
ThursdayThe three main characters have emerged already in our discussion, but let's explore them a bit more. Which POV (Nella, Eliza, or Caroline) were you most interested in reading? Who was the most compelling character? What did you make of the ending?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2022 8:08:23 GMT -5
I have to answer with Eliza. Although, she certainly needed more development, she kept the story moving with innocent mistakes, daring attempts, and her inquisitive nature.
Re: the ending… I wondered if it might have made a better beginning. It would have connected the two time lines right up front. I would have been intrigued with two women on the beach dressed in 1700’s clothing. That said, by the time I reached the ending, I was glad it was over.
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Post by bumblebuzz21 on Jan 20, 2022 8:28:44 GMT -5
I would vote for Nella. I liked how they only doled out little bits of info at a time and then BANG! Frederik! What a dick!
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Post by bernelli on Jan 20, 2022 8:41:53 GMT -5
I loved Eliza & Nella. I guess Nella is my favorite just a bit more, but not much. Their relationship was so interesting to watch. I hope that Nella did survive to live with Eliza and they both got a mother/daughter relationship.
I wanted Caroline to keep that bottle and use it in her research. I'm glad her plans included the apothecary shop for her studies.
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Post by ccToast on Jan 20, 2022 10:15:38 GMT -5
Nella was my favorite character. She was wise, kind to Eliza, and without much fanfare was able to help women of all classes have some measure of control in their lives.
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Post by ermabom on Jan 20, 2022 10:29:43 GMT -5
Catching up on yesterday's comments: there used to be a 'real' shop but when she started the poison business, she built that series of bookshelves and put the grain barrel there to receive orders and that is it. I'm sure that some of her poison customers bought other stuff from her, but she closed the 'real' public shop at the time. Being out in the open and also doing a poison business was risky. The poison business was all word of mouth so she would not have needed a logo.
I also didn't see that the two women were wearing 1700s clothing. I think they were too far off to really tell. We are left with a question - were they Nella and Eliza or not?
Thursday's topic: I really didn't see much character growth in the book, except for Eliza. Maybe Caroline's decision making for her life can be viewed as character growth but I just think it was waffling and then coming to a decision.
I think Eliza is the character I'd like to see more of. The book would have been far more fun and relatable had it been told from Eliza's POV at an older age. Maybe the point in time when her husband dies and leaves her the magic book shop which is one of the news items that Caroline discovers later in the book.
And while I was thinking about all that, I realized how incredibly unrealistic it is that the book survived 300 years out in the open and still had legible entries. Now, it was in the dark, which would have helped but paper dries out very fast and falls apart quite quickly compared to other materials.
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Post by fitin14 on Jan 20, 2022 10:56:24 GMT -5
I think there was character growth in Caroline. having said that I liked Eliza the best of the characters and I think her growth showed in her ability to learn as with the writing letters then the developing of the potion. It came of necessity but she showed an ablity to transform according to her needs.
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Post by moosishun on Jan 20, 2022 11:08:51 GMT -5
I hated that Eliza's husband died! I wonder what happened to him (cue Jaws music)
It's a big toss-up between Eliza and Nella. I still cannot abide that Caroline threw away that apothecary and missed the chance of a lifetime. I'm glad that she got into Cambridge and got rid of that scheming husband, but really. She missed out on a great adventure and I just disliked that decision she made for herself. I hope to heck that I don't throw out too many apothecaries in my own life.
Eliza and Nella, now that was some kind of team! I want a 2nd book about THEM!!!
*stomping foot and scaring dog*
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Post by gemster on Jan 20, 2022 12:42:37 GMT -5
Nella was my favourite but I’d have loved to have got to know Eliza as an adult, I’d have liked the story told from her POV as an old woman and/or by one of her children or grandchildren rather than modern day Caroline.
I think Caroline did grow and change but I just found her very ‘meh’ and didn’t really care that much about her.
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sal
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Post by sal on Jan 20, 2022 13:40:31 GMT -5
Tie between Nella and Eliza, Caroline a distant third. Though like Moosi I'm glad she dumped that gaslighting fool of a husband.
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Post by roundtoit on Jan 20, 2022 14:14:56 GMT -5
It's been too long since I read the book (posted on Goodreads in June 2021--over 50 books ago) to be very coherent, but I did give it a four stars on Goodreads.
I think Eliza and Nella. Eliza made some stupid errors but learned from them. Nella had to tolerate Eliza at first and learned to accept and teach her. Caroline I did like and feel development. She was so uncertain of herself until she started learning about the bottle. She became more confident of herself and her direction in life. Yes, she did get into Cambridge mighty quickly.
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Post by sparkles on Jan 20, 2022 14:15:32 GMT -5
This may be a stupid comment....but here goes....
I went back and reread the ending after seeing a few people make comments about the two women. Am I way off base, but I just assumed they were ghosts?
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Post by sparkles on Jan 20, 2022 14:21:26 GMT -5
I think I found Caroline interesting because I could relate to her. I think there are so many amongst us who are doing what we are expected to do, rather than exploring our own path/ambitions/dreams. Especially women.
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Post by zoomingzebra on Jan 20, 2022 14:28:12 GMT -5
Nella, for sure. Her story was just so interesting. I would love to know what her physical illness actually was. Psychosomatic? Real? We didn’t really find out, did we?
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Post by peacemama on Jan 21, 2022 1:31:37 GMT -5
Friday
‘No two persons ever read the same book.’ - Edmund Wilson
Friday free-for-all. For this final day please freely discuss any lingering topics that haven't already been covered -- random thoughts, wonders, or questions you'd like to share.
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Post by peacemama on Jan 21, 2022 2:00:13 GMT -5
Thanks to you all for joining this week's vibrant discussion.
Random tidbits:
Sarah Penner mentioned in her author's bio that she has a miniature dachshund, Zoe. Love that! I hold a special fondness for dachshunds and we currently have a mini dachshund named Mags.
The Lost Apothecary is being turned into a drama series by Fox. No release date yet.
A lingering image from the book: A lot of innocent beetles were crushed in the making of the poisoned potion.
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Post by bernelli on Jan 21, 2022 8:03:42 GMT -5
I don't have anything right now that we haven't discussed -- we always discuss even more than I typically consider, and I love that. I'm headed to the car mechanic for maintenance, and will be back later to join in and see if there's chitter chatter for me to contribute to. Thanks peacemama, for leading the discussion and for finding a book for us to discuss!
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Post by bumblebuzz21 on Jan 21, 2022 8:25:22 GMT -5
Thanks for this awesome discussion peacemama! I wish we would have gotten more info about the bad feeling she got for the poison she made right before Eliza.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2022 8:54:18 GMT -5
So, something that didn’t come up….it seems like there were quite a few men in London dying at early ages,shortly after having an affair or beating their wife but there was no mention of any suspicion among the population. Plus, MANY women in the community knew where to get the dirty deed done. Doesn’t seem plausible that no one reported. I’m generally pretty good at overlooking small things but these were glaring.
I’ll add again that I didn’t hate this book. I enjoyed the story but I probably won’t read this author again.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2022 9:04:46 GMT -5
Oh, and thank you peacemama for leading this discussion. I really liked the quotes and extra information you provided.
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Post by gemster on Jan 21, 2022 9:07:52 GMT -5
Thank you peacemama, I really enjoyed this discussion. I’ve even slightly warmed to Caroline after other people’s comments
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Post by fitin14 on Jan 21, 2022 9:11:15 GMT -5
thanks so much for the discussion!
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Post by roundtoit on Jan 21, 2022 9:39:30 GMT -5
Thanks for the discussion. Since it's been a while, I don't really recall what I might have questioned as I read. I read it quickly, though, so it held my attention, I don't remember disliking it, and I gave it four stars. Wish my long-term memory were better. So many authors are now switching between two time periods now and making it work. It took me a while to get used to that style, but I have come to enjoy it very much.
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Post by ccToast on Jan 21, 2022 9:44:44 GMT -5
The Lost Apothecary is being turned into a drama series by Fox. No release date yet. I hope that the Fox series will be a continuing series rather than a faithful adaptation of the book. I'm interested to think that we could see more of Nella and Eliza through the years. peacemama , I especially appreciate your quotation for the day. Thank you for leading the discussion this week!
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Post by ermabom on Jan 21, 2022 10:26:29 GMT -5
peacemama, thanks for leading the discussion. It was very interesting. @fairazzbueller, according to what I understood from The Secret Poisoner, the main poison in use during the early 1800s into 1900 was arsenic which can look a lot like food poisoning and food poisoning was probably fairly common in those days. There were other vegetal poisons too but those were harder to detect and people just assumed that they were sick and died, I guess. Plus a lot of 'medicines' contained these poisons so even taking too much of one of them could have caused death. Prussic acid was taken for some health conditions Also from reading Br. Cadfael books, it took a lot of detective work to figure out who might have been poisoned and I don't think people had the resources to do that. Edith Pargeter, who wrote the Br. Cadfael books was a medieval scholar and while that was set a few centuries earlier, I don't think medicine actually made much progress till the 19th century. Br. Cadfael is a herbalist monk and because he dispenses medicines, like Nella, he is familiar with poisons but he also has the support of his abbot and the local sheriff. If he didn't, he couldn't have done any investigations. In the 19th century, they were doing autopsies (not sure if they did them in the 1700s) and doing things like chemically burning the organic material away from the stomach or other organs, and bodily fluids, to have the mineral poisons remain. That is how they detected things like arsenic and antimony, So poisoning was probably not suspected as so many people died of infectious diseases as well as other natural causes. Life expectancy was much lower and that is why I think the premise of so many men dying works. Women being powerless (they were essentially their father's or husband's or brother's property unless they were widows with money), I'm sure there was a network of women to support each other in some way. On the topic of the Fox series, I wouldn't watch it. I tried watching Bones because I love Kathy Reichs' books but I hated how they changed the character so I didn't even finish one episode.
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