48 pages • 1 hour read
Annie LyonsThe Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
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.
Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section contains discussions of suicide, domestic violence, bullying, mental illness, alcohol use disorder, and pregnancy loss.
Eudora Honeysett is a no-nonsense, practical elderly woman who lives in Southeast London and is dissatisfied with old age living. She prefers to be called “Miss Honeysett” and confronts the postman for walking through her flower beds to deliver the mail. On the day the story begins, Eudora finds an envelope that she plans to open later as a treat. She heads to the recreational center for her swim and then stops at the neighborhood supermarket, picking up some milk and apple turnovers.
On her way home, Eudora runs into Stanley Marcham. A year ago, Stanley witnessed Eudora fall on the sidewalk and called an ambulance. That trip to the emergency room initiated frequent check-ins by the NHS (National Health Service, the taxpayer-funded healthcare system in England) and Eudora’s assigned social worker, Ruth. Eudora resents their efforts to improve her health and function and would prefer to be left in peace.
While she was in the Accident and Emergency Department (commonly called A&E, the equivalent to the ER in the US) after her fall, Eudora met Elsie Howlett in the waiting room. They discussed the inevitable death that would soon come for them both, and Elsie slipped Eudora a brochure for an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. Eudora later found out that Elsie had passed away at the hospital. Eudora was able to go home, bearing in mind Elsie’s words: “May as well take control of your destiny when you can” (6).
Back in the present, Eudora returns home and falls asleep in her chair. When she wakes up, she puts a candle in the turnover and wishes herself “Happy birthday.” She then opens the envelope that came in the mail earlier that day. It is from Klinik Lebenswahl, “offering choice and dignity in death as in life” (14).
A flashback to 1940 depicts Eudora and her father, Albert Honeysett, visiting the Lyons Tea Shop to pick up a special treat for Eudora’s birthday—an extra luxury during war time rationing. They were forced to relocate to the nearest bomb shelter when an air raid siren went off. While in the shelter, Albert gave Eudora her cake and told her that he would have to leave soon, that her mother was pregnant, and that he needed her to promise to take good care of both her mother and her new sibling. Eudora solemnly promised.
Chapter 2 Summary
Eudora calls the clinic and asks to start the process for ending her life with assisted suicide. She is informed by Petra, the woman who answers the phone, that the paperwork and interviews take about four months. Eudora notes the time on the calendar and is pleased that she won’t have to endure another Christmas season alone.
Eudora is interrupted twice, first by a man who is selling washcloths to support young offenders who are trying to reenter society. Eudora refuses to buy one, and the man is rude, saying, “’Ope you die soon” (21). The second interruption is the new neighbors, a 10-year-old girl named Rose Trewidney and her mother, Maggie. Rose makes friends with Montgomery, Eudora’s temperamental cat, and asks Eudora a series of rapid-fire questions. Having said hello to their new neighbor, Maggie and Rose then leave.
A flashback to 1940 depicts Eudora remembering building the family’s bomb shelter with her father. Albert had invited their neighbors, the Crabbs, to shelter in safety with them, but Mr. Crabb had refused. Albert had told Eudora that Mr. Crabb lost his son during World War I and refused to allow the Germans to force him into hiding.
A month after Albert left, Eudora’s mother, Beatrice, gave birth to the baby, Stella, while sheltering from bombs. Mrs. Crabb was in the family’s bomb shelter and attended the labor, but when they emerged the next morning they found that bombs had struck the Crabbs’ house and that Mr. Crabb had not survived. Eudora was saddened by his death but suspected that Mr. Crabb was happy to die on his own terms.
Chapter 3 Summary
Eudora goes to the pool as usual and runs into her new neighbors, Maggie and Rose. They are delighted to see Eudora, and Rose invites herself over to Eudora’s house later that day to visit Montgomery.
Returning home, Eudora is pleased to finally see mail from the Swiss clinic and eagerly fills out the paperwork, glad to be in control of the end of her life. She takes a nap and is later awakened by Rose at the door. They eat the cookies that Rose brought over, and Rose invites herself along on Eudora’s walk to the post office to drop off the packet of paperwork. While at the post office, Rose engages the always-joking Stanley, who is in line. Rose points out a packet of Haribo Cherries, noting that they’re “really nice.” Eudora buys the candies and is surprised by how nice Rose’s hand feels in hers when she gives her the sweets.
The narrative flashes back to 1944. Now a young child, Stella was too headstrong, loud, and difficult for Beatrice, so Eudora handled most of her sister’s care. Beatrice had no patience for Stella’s wild behavior and noisiness, associating her with the war. Eudora was also doing other household chores, like making dinner and preparing tea, because her mother was tired and found life difficult. Eudora was also mindful of the promise she made to her father, and she often listened to the radio for news, hoping that her father would somehow feel her connection with him across the distance. However, one day when Eudora was preparing dinner, a messenger boy came by with the notice that Albert had been killed in action.
Chapter 4 Summary
Eudora sits down to make her last will and testament when she realizes that the garbage truck is passing and that she has not taken the garbage out to the street. Out on the street she runs into Stanley and Rose, who make sure her trash gets picked up. Rose then invites Stanley and Eudora to come to her house for tea.
During tea, Stanley talks about his deceased wife, Ada, and their relationship, including how loving and wonderful it was. They knew each other since they were small children. She loved dogs, and while he was more of a cat person, he now has the two King Charles Spaniels. Eudora is appalled by Stanley’s show of emotion, but she is enchanted by Rose. Despite herself, she enjoys the visit.
The narrative flashes back to 1948, when Eudora got the idea to plant some sweet peas like her father used to do. She made a secret pact with her sister, promising Stella that she could make perfume with the petals, and they germinated the seeds and then planted them to surprise their mother. Once the plants blossomed, Eudora gave Stella the petals for her own use and then picked a bunch for their mother, Beatrice. When Beatrice saw Stella with the flowers, she accused her of stealing them from another person’s garden. Mother and daughter fought, Stella wishing her mother dead and Beatrice calling her a devil child. Eudora later told her mother that she and Stella did plant the flowers. However, when she brought Beatrice out to the garden to show her, Stella was already outside, ripping them all up.
Chapter 5 Summary
Eudora receives a phone call from Petra, who tells her that she’s worried that Eudora’s application won’t be accepted. Eudora doesn’t have anyone in her life, and Petra thinks the doctor will determine that she is depressed and therefore not a candidate for assisted suicide.
After Eudora gets off the phone, Rose knocks at the door and begs her to go swimming with her, promising that her mother will drop them off so they do not have to walk. Eudora and Rose end up having a good time. Eudora teaches Rose how to do a front crawl, but when Eudora is on the other side of the pool, Rose pretends to be drowning and scares Eudora. She makes sure that Rose understands how serious it is to pretend to be drowning as a joke and is reluctant to forgive Rose. In the end she accepts Rose’s apology, but she is shaken.
The narrative flashes back to 1950. Eudora and Stella went to the pool and ran into Sam Buchanan, a boy that Eudora had a crush on. Eudora and Stella swam, Eudora trying to teach a reluctant and defiant Stella how to swim better. Then Sam came over and asked Eudora if she would like to go to the movies. Excited, she was about to say yes when suddenly it appeared that Stella was drowning. The lifeguard jumped in and pulled her out, but later Stella said that Eudora “made her do it” (91), suggesting that Stella was pretending to drown just to keep Eudora focused on her. Eudora was later approached by Sam again, and she said no to a date.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
The opening chapters establish the book’s narrative structure, in which flashbacks at the end of each chapter contextualize or comment on the present-day narrative. In Chapter 1, for example, Eudora buys turnovers to celebrate her birthday by herself. This event is paired with a flashback in which Eudora is similarly celebrating her birthday with a treat—a special indulgence during the war—but in this instance, she is not alone: Her father is with her. The contrast between feeling loved and special with her father and lighting a candle alone in her house underscores the isolation and sadness Eudora feels in the present day.
These feelings explain much of the novel’s core conflict, also introduced in the first chapter. Eudora wants to end her life on her own terms. Annie Lyons frames this desire for dignity and independence as understandable, most explicitly during Eudora’s interaction with Elsie at the hospital and in the flashback to Mr. Crabb’s death: “[A]lthough Eudora was sad about Mr. Crabb, she got the feeling he would be satisfied that Hitler hadn’t succeeded in expelling him from his bed” (35). The latter event occurred when Eudora was a young child and undoubtedly influences her interest in assisted suicide. Nevertheless, Eudora’s desire to take charge of her death Is intertwined with another desire: for death itself. In fact, she thinks, “Death. The end. She’s rather looking forward to it” because her life feels so empty in the present (2). The early exposition certainly establishes how lonely and dull Eudora’s current life is: Her excursions to the pool seem like her only real outings, and she spends much of her time at home napping.
However, if Eudora’s life circumstances partially explain her interest in assisted suicide, they also, ironically, hinder her in pursuing it. As Petra explains, the clinic does not consider assisted suicide a solution to unhappiness and loneliness. To die, Eudora first needs to embrace life fully. By creating an opportunity for Eudora to interact with someone else, Rose’s introduction hints at what this shift might entail. The Intergenerational Friendship theme begins with Rose’s insinuation of herself into Eudora’s life, and while it takes some time for that friendship to develop, Rose’s cheerfulness and generosity are already evident in the invitations and gifts she offers Eudora (e.g., sharing the Haribo candy with her).
One early wrinkle in the relationship comes when Rose pretends to drown at the pool. Once again, Eudora’s reaction makes more sense after the flashback. While both Stella and Rose pretend to drown, Stella does so for selfish reasons, whereas Rose is merely being playful. Nevertheless, Rose’s fake drowning immediately brings back the painful memories of the past, including a path that could have been: Eudora and Sam could have dated as young adults, gotten married, and had a family. That possibility was prevented by Stella forcing her sister to concentrate all her energy on her. At the same time, Eudora also makes a choice when she declines Sam’s second offer. Eudora’s strict adherence to the promise she made her father demonstrates her loyalty and strength of character, but it also stands in the way of her own happiness.
