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 15-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
Eudora has been helping Maggie with the baby: Typically, Rose fetches her, and Eudora then watches the baby and keeps Rose occupied while Maggie rests. Rose is worried about going back to school soon.
Eudora heads to the doctor’s office to get her living will signed and to obtain copies of her medical records to send to the Swiss clinic. She’s particularly tired and her heart feels weaker than usual. The doctor examines her, prescribes antibiotics for a chest infection, and orders an echocardiogram to check her heart.
A flashback to 1964 depicts Sam and Eudora happy together and in love. However, Sam’s ex-wife, Judith, had made it difficult for Sam to see his children. When Judith decided to move with the children to Norwich, Sam asked Eudora to move there with him so that he could stay close to his children. Eudora was hesitant to leave her life in London, worried about her mother, but promised to speak with her about a move. When Eudora returned home, however, she found a note from her mother and rushed upstairs to see that Beatrice had taken many pills. Beatrice told Eudora that she just wanted Eudora to be happy.
Chapter 16 Summary
Eudora and Stanley return to the group meeting, this time featuring “Chris the Crooner.” Eudora is kind to Audrey, whose husband Jim passed away after the last meeting. Stanley and his new friend, Sheila, are enjoying each other’s company. When Chris the Crooner begins to sing, everyone gets up and dances, including Stanley and Sheila. Eudora is disturbed by the music, which reminds her of her troubled past, and leaves hastily. Stanley and Sheila stop by her house later to check on her, but she cuts off their concerns and dismisses Stanley.
After Rose’s first day at school, Eudora and Stanley wait for her at the school. Rose emerges and introduces them to her new friend, Jada, who does not have good manners and does not seem to like anyone. After Jada leaves, a friendly boy named Tommy waves at Rose, but Jada has told Rose that he’s a “prick.” Stanley and Eudora tell Rose that that language is inappropriate and that she should not limit her friends to just Jada. Later Rose decides that she’ll give all her classmates a chance.
While Rose is preoccupied, Stanley confronts Eudora about her strange behavior at the group meeting and asks if she’s jealous of Sheila. Eudora scoffs and refuses to offer an opinion on his new relationship. Stanley is hurt by her coldness.
The narrative flashes back to 1977, when Sylvia and her grown son, Phil, came to visit from Canada. Sylvia’s husband, Ken, was very successful, and the family had a full life there. Eudora was taken aback by how little she and Sylvia still had in common. Sylvia and Phil were baffled by the jubilee-themed special treats and presents Eudora had so carefully prepared for them. Sylvia asked Eudora why she didn’t move away to be with Sam, instead staying to help Beatrice recuperate from her overdose. Eudora defended her choices, seeing no other option but duty.
Chapter 17 Summary
Eudora receives a phone call from Greta letting her know that her application was approved and that she can end her life in just a few weeks if she wants to. Eudora feels relief. She hasn’t seen Stanley or Rose since that afternoon after school, and she has been feeling weak.
A storm breaks out while the children walk home from school, Eudora watching from her windows. Jada has walked home with Rose, and Eudora hears her sneer at Rose’s friendship with Eudora.
Later, as Eudora is making soup, Montgomery becomes frightened by the storm and runs outside via the cat flap. Eudora hears a squeal of tires and knows right away that Montgomery was hit by a car, which turns out to have been driven by Jada’s mother. Rob and Rose bring Monty into the house and say their goodbyes. Eudora is glad he didn’t suffer and makes a decision about the end of her own life.
A flashback to 2005 depicts Beatrice, now 95 years old, calling the ambulance several times a week. She enjoyed the doctors’ attention and alleged that she felt safer at the hospital. Eudora saw her mother’s life as a long tragedy, basically ending when Albert died during the war. After being hospitalized for a heart attack, Beatrice was weak and uninterested in the NHS nurses’ efforts to get her back on her feet. Eudora wished that she could just take Beatrice home and let her die peacefully in her bed. She left the hospital feeling frustrated and without saying a proper goodbye to her mother. Later Eudora received a call that Beatrice had passed away.
Chapter 18 Summary
Rose plans an elaborate funeral for Montgomery, but Eudora does not enjoy the playfulness. She’s cold and tired and wants everyone to leave. She tells them all that she’s going on an impromptu vacation to Switzerland. Stanley insists on driving her to the airport, and Rose asks Eudora to bring her back a Toblerone. Eudora is glad that Stanley seems to be happy with Sheila and even more glad that her time is nearly done. She will leave letters with her lawyer to distribute to her friends after she’s gone.
Chapters 15-18 Analysis
Eudora pulls away from Stanley and Rose and avoids human connection again as she receives the approval for her assisted suicide application. Not only does she decide to continue with her original plan, overlooking the happiness she has recently found, but she also neglects to tell her new loved ones about her plans. Instead, she becomes taciturn and refuses to engage, hurting their feelings. For example, when Stanley asks Eudora what she thinks of Sheila, she says, “It’s really none of my business what you do, Stanley” (302). Stanley is hurt and puzzled that his friend does not want to give him reassurance or advice about this. Her avoidance of connection continues at Montgomery’s funeral, where Eudora cannot appreciate Rose’s flair for the dramatic. She is too sad to participate, and given the parallels between Montgomery and Eudora herself, she likely takes his death as confirmation that nothing but death is left to her.
This section’s flashbacks furnish further evidence as to why Eudora is so skeptical of Reconciling with the Past and Embracing Second Chances. Every time Eudora tries to find happiness, she is thwarted by her promise to take care of her mother. Ironically, the novel implies that Beatrice’s overdose stems from Beatrice’s sense that she wronged Eudora and her desire to set her free: “‘Want you to be happy, Dora,’ she murmured before falling back onto the bed” (288). The episode underscores the miscommunication and repression that has plagued the family from the start; Beatrice’s wish for her daughter to be happy seems genuine, but rather than opening up about the ways in which she might have failed Eudora, she takes an action that further enmeshes Eudora in her promise to her father. Eudora never again has the opportunity for romantic love after her relationship with Sam ends.
The flashback to Beatrice’s death foreshadows Eudora’s own heart problems, but it also further contextualizes Eudora’s interest in assisted suicide. Eudora does not want to die as her mother did—alone and in a clinical setting—but that is precisely what she is signing up for in traveling to Switzerland. This suggests that there is more to Eudora’s decision than she is willing to admit. Although Eudora insists that her choice does not stem from loneliness or despair, Lyons implies that she fears Sheila and Jada’s presence have made her superfluous in Stanley and Rose’s lives, respectively. Rather than communicating that anxiety to her friends, however, she simply withdraws; Eudora has spent a lifetime suppressing her emotions, and she reverts to that behavior when under stress.
