Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock (Gowar) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE MERMAID AND MRS. HANCOCK ... then take off on your own:

BEWARE OF PLOT SPOILERS.

1. How would you describe Jonah Hancock? Do you consider him an honest man? An opportunist? A simpleton? Is he interesting enough character to carry the bulk of the novel?

2. Bet Chappell: what do you think of her? What does her pornographic mermaid burlesque say about her understanding of society's mores in the late 1700s?

3. Angelica Neal is a prostitute who beguiles Jonah into turning over his mermaid to Chappell. How else would you describe her? She is in love with George Rockingham, so were you surprised that she agreed to marry Jonah? Clearly the two make an unlikely couple: what do you think of the marriage?

4. What do you make of the remark to the newly married Angelica that "You are helpless. You are kept… Perhaps you mistake this for independence, but you are still a whore"?

5. Follow-up to Question 4: Consider the thematic parallels that Imogen Hermes Gowar sets up between the mermaid and the female characters in the novel. Talk about the way the author combines myth and legend with the brutal realities, especially for women (and slaves) of 18th century life.

6. How surprised were you (unless you knew beforehand from book reviews) to learn of the live mermaid Jonah kept in the grotto in the back garden?

7. The author writes that the mermaid, contained in her saltwater vat, is a "great voluptuous sorrow rolling over." What does that statement mean? Talk about the affect the trapped mermaid has over Jonah's Greenwich household and his marriage.

8. What do you make of Angelica's change in personality toward the end? Is it convincing?

9. Which other characters were you particularly taken with—in a positive and/or negative way.

10. To what degree does the author's background working in museums reveal itself in her novel? What difference does it make in the juxtaposition of reality and fantasy?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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