60 pages • 2 hours read
Janet Skeslien CharlesMiss Morgan's Book Brigade
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A 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 12-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Kit narrates from Blérancourt in March 1918. Kit continues corresponding with her mother, her sister Mabel, and Tom. One night Kit asks Cookie what it’s like to be “with a man” and confesses that she never has because everyone back home knew everyone else’s business. Now she wants more than book-learning about passion.
On their visit to the Red Zone, Vivienne tells Kit and Marcelle she saw a man in a German uniform, but Victorine tells her it was a “boogeyman” and still refuses to leave. At the club-house, Jeanne announces that she and Henri are engaged, and the Cards begin planning a wedding celebration; Anne Morgan insists on covering the expense of a wedding gown over Dr. M.D.’s objections.
The soldiers arrive, and Kit and Tom rush to greet one another. After dancing, Kit sneaks Tom back to her room despite his concerns for her “reputation.” She is no longer as worried about what people think, and she wants him. They have sex.
Chapter 13 Summary
Wendy narrates from New York in February 1987. Wendy and Roberto are still not speaking, and she spends most of her time learning more about the Cards and World War I, including the perspectives of different countries at the war’s beginning. She learns that despite the generals’ belief that the war would last only a few months, it resulted in 40 million casualties. Wendy comments drily on the limitations of historical perspective in a description of the French General Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, who allowed millions of his own men to be killed by refusing to dig defensive trenches, but was given a statue and regarded as a hero because the French won. By contrast, she has trouble finding any information about Frenchwomen in the war, as though they didn’t exist at all.
Wendy and Roberto make up, and he asks about her research. He suggests Jessie Carson might have gotten married and taken a new name. Wendy feels like the search might be impossible.
Chapter 14 Summary
Kit narrates from Blérancourt in March 1918. Progress is being made in rebuilding the village. On the first day of spring, the day of Jeanne and Henri’s wedding, Kit tries to convince Sidonie to attend the wedding; she says no because she’s lost her faith due to the death of her husband and daughter. They talk about the small pleasures in life, which Sidonie does still believe in.
During the vows, Kit reflects on the importance of rituals like weddings and imagines marrying Tom. She observes an intimate and loving exchange between the two Annes. The reception is interrupted by Tom, who has come to warn that the Germans have broken through and civilians need to evacuate the area. He and Kit embrace, refusing to say “goodbye,” and Kit gives him a copy of The Adventures of Kit Carson. In a rare show of vulnerability, Marcelle frets that the Germans will take them all prisoner, like Jeanne and Suzanne. Kit knows she should encourage Marcelle to evacuate, but also that she needs Marcelle to bring her to Vivienne and Victorine, so they can rescue the girls before it’s too late.
Chapter 15 Summary
Wendy narrates from New York in February 1987. Roberto helps Wendy find names of people associated with Jessie Carson, including Mary Breckinridge and Kate Lewis. Wendy takes a bus to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where she finds boxes of photos and articles about Kate Lewis, who married Arthur Sidney Hay and then served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during World War II. She makes 30 calls to people named Lewis and Hay, but can’t find Kate.
In class, Wendy contradicts Professor Hill when he calls Meredith’s work “subpar,” and Meredith thanks her. They meet for coffee and begin to kindle a friendship, debating whether they’re getting anything worthwhile out of the class. As they talk about highlighting and underlining while reading, Wendy recalls how her mother reread the same books throughout her lifetime, writing in the margins with a different color each time, showing how her perceptions of the stories changed as she aged. She died when Wendy was 12, forever changing her daughter’s life. Meredith shares a notebook of visuals she makes to help her plan her stories, and Wendy is inspired to look for more information about the Cards in maps.
At the NYPL, the librarian in the map division shows her a map of Northern France in World War I, which shows a swath of red indicating the Red Zone, which he says is full of “[b]ombs and mustard gas, hand grenades and ammunition. […] [A]rsenic, lead, and mercury contamination” (166). Realizing the German army wiped entire towns off the map, Wendy begins to understand the daily dangers the Cards faced.
Chapter 16 Summary
Kit narrates from Blérancourt in March 1918. The two Annes debate the fastest way to evacuate the village, deciding to fill the Fords with people and travel back and forth to the train station, and then to Paris, as many times as they can. Jeanne and Henri arrive, but Madame Petit has refused to leave her home—she left last time and Suzanne went missing. Meanwhile, Marcelle insists her mother and brothers leave with Lewis, even though she is staying behind to chauffeur other civilians. Marcelle and Kit set out to rescue Victorine and Vivienne; after a search, they find the girls hiding because they saw four German soldiers that morning. When they return to headquarters, Dr. M.D. sets them to the task of convincing Madame Petit and Sidonie to evacuate.
Chapter 17 Summary
Kit narrates from Blérancourt in March 1918. After a protracted argument, Kit convinces Madame Petit that it’s important for her to stay alive for Jeanne, rather than waiting for Suzanne, who may never return. Madame packs all her prized possessions in a burlap bag and secures it to a rock in the stream behind her house, saying that even if the water carries everything away, it will be better than the Germans getting it. Madame Petit encourages Kit to get Sidonie. When Sidonie asks how she can leave her daughter’s grave behind, Kit convinces her to go by saying her daughter would want her to be safe.
The roar of bombs and black smoke fill the air as the Cards continue with evacuations throughout the day. After a sleepless night listening to the air raid, the women learn the Allies have not been able to hold back the Germans and they have 10 minutes to pack.
Chapter 18 Summary
Wendy narrates from New York in March 1987. Wendy reads about the German offensive and evacuation of Blérancourt, awed by the Cards’ courage. She writes the first chapter of her book about them.
At the NYPL, Wendy sees Roberto in the reading room, interacting with patrons, and realizes this is where he belongs. When he returns to Remembrance, she shares the pages she has written, and he praises them. Then he asks her to “grab a bite after work” (185). As they eat, he reminds her that it’s her two-year anniversary at the NYPL and describes seeing her for the first time and thinking she was a “main character.” She calls him her favorite leading man. Roberto gives her a gift: Wide Neighborhood, Mary Breckingridge’s autobiography. Wendy is touched, and they talk more candidly. She tells him he really should be working with patrons, and it might be time to leave the NYPL if the director won’t let him. On the way home, they kiss.
Chapters 12-18 Analysis
The routine of life in Blérancourt provides a sense of security and hope. Kit writes letters to her mother, sister, and Tom, and notes the passage of days: “Another dawn, another trip with Marcelle to the Red Zone to check on Vivienne and Victorine” (138). Even that ever-present danger has become familiar, homes and farms have been repaired, and the generation of women who initially represented the vanguard against Kit’s efforts—Sidonie, Madame Petit, and Madame Moreau—are slowly warming to the idea that life might begin again. The calm and routine have given all the characters space to demonstrate Self-Discovery, Resilience, and Transformation. With Jeanne and Henri’s wedding approaching, Kit and Sidonie reflect on the everyday pleasures of life; scheduling that ritual on the first day of spring symbolizes the villagers’ belief in a rebirth and a fresh start. After depicting the beauty of these predictable structures of life and lulling the characters into a false sense of security, the novel jolts them into the rising action in the form of necessary evacuations in response to a German offensive. Kit’s narration emphasizes the irony of this upheaval when she says “[t]he first day of spring represented renewal, all right. Renewal of combat. Another attack meant more destruction and death” (157).
The length and frequency of Wendy’s chapters in the 1987 timeline increases as the offensive gets underway in the 1918 timeline. This gives real-world context to the Cards’ efforts with commentary on the historical record and illustrates the importance of The Preservation of Cultural Artifacts. Wendy’s research into the diplomatic breakdowns that resulted in World War I leads her to the conclusion that but for a few missed opportunities, all the destruction and death playing out in 1918 could have been avoided. She explores the recorded history of the war through several paragraphs of exposition following this assertion: “History is about perspective” (146). History, she suggests, is written by the victors, who don’t emphasize their mistakes or share credit for their victories. In that vein, she also notes that based on the histories, “[Y]ou might think that the French population was entirely made up of men. Yet while they were off fighting, wives, widows, mothers and daughters held the country together” (147). Exploring the gaps in the record, she again connects the preservation of artifacts with the need to better preserve The Impacts of Women in History; artifacts preserved by men will preserve men’s impacts.
In the 1918 timeline, the motif of mothers and daughters further develops these ideas by showing how the courageous actions of women in the face of the offensive did indeed hold the country together. Evacuating the villages of men, women, and children, the Cards keep their composure as they make multiple trips to and from the train station. When both Sidonie and Madame Petit initially refuse to leave the war zone because of their longing to stay connected to lost daughters, Kit’s ability to move them underscores their emotional connections and creates poignant moments. Marcelle is further transformed; though her initial fear of the Germans reminds Kit “that she knew what we could not about war” (198), her ability to compose herself and set out to rescue Vivienne and Victorine shows her sense of responsibility and a motherly protectiveness. As they agree to keep their foray into the Red Zone secret from Madame Moreau, Skeslien Charles also engages in a moment of foreshadowing, having Kit note, “This was not to be the only danger that Marcelle and I got ourselves into, nor the only secret we’d keep” (173).
Throughout these escalating dangers, the alternation between Wendy’s research and Kit’s in-the-trenches narration also juxtaposes their parallel journeys toward self-discovery and independence. Kit’s decision to have sex with Tom demonstrates her recognition that life is fleeting and shows her owning her choices. The idea is hers, and being far from the judgments of her neighbors has freed her from worrying about her “reputation.” Across time, Wendy’s reconciliation and date with Roberto shows her pursuing love on her own terms as well, her narrative full of “I” statements that demonstrate her taking control of their first kiss. Wendy’s willingness to take control in other areas of her life—applying for a promotion, befriending Meredith, and defying Hill’s commentary on her writing—reinforces her assertion that reading about the Cards has given her courage and emphasizes the value of learning about the past.
