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54 pages 1 hour read

Jennifer Robson

The Gown

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary: “Ann—July 10, 1947”

Milly left a month ago, and Ann feels intensely lonely. She also hasn’t been able to find a roommate from the women she works with because they don’t want to take an hour train ride to the suburbs every day. Ann writes an advertisement for a roommate to drop off at the paper after work. Her mood changes when she hears on the wireless that Princess Elizabeth is engaged to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. Deciding this is cause for celebration, Ann leaves early for work and treats herself to breakfast out and a newspaper with details of the royal wedding.

When Ann arrives at work, her coworkers are abuzz about the royal wedding; they wonder whether Hartnell will be chosen to design the wedding gown. Miss Duley tells Ann privately that Mr. Hartnell is working on a design for the royal gown, and Ann will make samples of embroidery that will be presented with the design. Ann is thrilled. Miss Duley also asks Ann about Miriam and if she’s fitting in. Ann decides to make more of an effort to be friends with Miriam. At the morning tea break, Ann seeks her out. They talk about their careers and the difficulties of the war. Miriam reveals that her landlady doesn’t like her because she is French, so Ann invites Miriam to be her roommate. Miriam agrees to see the house after work.

Chapter 8 Summary: “Miriam—July 10, 1947”

Miriam is surprised the journey to Ann’s house is only an hour. She expected a longer journey after Ann’s description. It makes her think of her train journey to Ravensbrück. When a woman fainted from exhaustion, the guards shot her as a warning. Miriam pushes the thought away as Ann tells how Barking used to be in the country before London and industrialism encroached. They talk about their families. Miriam reveals her family died during the war, and Ann shares her grief about deaths in her family as well. When they arrive at the house, Ann shows Miriam around, and Miriam is impressed by Ann’s beautiful flower garden. Miriam almost cries when she sees the peonies because her mother used to grow them.

Over tea, they talk about rent and food, and Ann says they must be careful because it is a council house, which means the town council of Barking owns it, and a family is supposed to live there. Technically, they are breaking the rules, but Ann says she pays rent on time, and it shouldn’t be a problem. Miriam agrees to move in on Saturday. Before Miriam leaves, Ann cuts peonies from the garden and gives them to Miriam, which makes Miriam want to cry. Miriam leaves feeling lighter knowing she has a new home.

Chapter 9 Summary: “Heather—July 13, 2016"

Heather’s friends are going out for drinks, but Heather decides not to go after the stressful day at work. Richard, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, canceled her cover story about a controversial tech CEO due to outside pressure. At home, Heather watches TV and looks through the mail. She finds a commemorative guide to Queen Elizabeth’s ninetieth birthday from her mother. Heather notices Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown, specifically the embroidered flowers, which look exactly like the ones that her grandmother left her. Heather starts Googling the dress, the flowers, and the designer. She calls her mother about her suspicion that her grandmother worked as an embroideress for Norman Hartnell and helped make Queen Elizabeth’s gown. Her mother agrees to look through old pictures to see if she can find anything else.

The next day, Heather’s mother emails her three pictures: a young picture of her grandmother from 1947, a picture of her grandmother and Aunt Milly in a garden, and a picture of her grandmother and another girl dressed up. Heather searches for information about her grandmother’s friend and discovers it’s Miriam Dassin, a famous artist. Heather is even more confused now because she doesn’t know why her grandmother wouldn’t tell her about working on the wedding gown and being friends with a famous artist.

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

The connections between the three narrators start to become clearer in these chapters. Ann and Miriam become roommates and begin their friendship, which will influence their characters’ growth and change for the rest of the novel. It is finally revealed that Heather’s grandmother is Ann, which plants questions about what happened to Ann to take her from working at Hartnell in England to becoming a mother in Canada.

Classism again appears with Ann’s fear that she’ll be evicted from her apartment. The town council controls the house, and it is supposed to be a dwelling for a family, so Ann is worried she will have nowhere to go because she can’t afford the rent by herself. She is even scared about advertising for renters because the council might see it. Miriam’s story again is plagued by xenophobia. Her landlady doesn’t like her because she is French and makes disparaging comments toward her. The theme of Family Legacy also starts to emerge with Heather’s journey of figuring out her grandmother’s past and what that legacy means for her.

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