1.As a prelude to this novel, Gibbons offers poetry by Allen Tate and Robert Lowell, poets who share her heroine¹s surnames. How do the poems foreshadow the events and mood of the novel? What do they, and the novel itself, reveal about the legacy of the Civil War?

2. What insights do Emma Garnet¹s initial reaction to her father¹s murder of Jacob give you into the society in which she grew up? How does she conform to antebellum Southern beliefs and behavior, and in what ways does she defy them?

3. Why, despite his impressive accomplishments as a self-educated man, is her father so hostile to his bookish son and so critical of Emma Garnet¹s interest in learning? Why does he prefer his daughter Maureen? What circumstances beyond his personal background influence the way he treats his children?

4. Why doesn¹t Alice Tate protest her husband¹s behavior? What, if anything, could Emma Garnet have done to make her mother¹s life easier?

5. Emma Garnet and Quincy acknowledge Clarice¹s freedom when they arrive in North Carolina, yet they tell the other servants, who are in fact free as well, that Clarice owns them. Is there any justification for their lie? Do you think Charlie, Mavis, and Martha would have remained with the Lowells, as Clarice did, had Emma Garnet and Quincy been honest with them from the beginning? Why do the three leave immediately when they learn the truth from Clarice?

6. When war breaks out, why does Quincy refuse to take a commission but agree to assume command of a Southern hospital? Given his background and his beliefs, do you think he should have returned to the North? Why does Emma Garnet work so hard in the hospital despite her ambivalence about the Southern cause? Looking back many years later, she writes, "I still hold that it was a conflict perpetrated by rich men and fought by poor boys against hungry women and babies." Do you think this is an accurate portrayal of the Civil War? Is it true of every war?

7. Do you feel any sympathy for Samuel Tate when he arrives in Raleigh after Seven Oaks is taken over? What does Quincy hope to accomplish by telling his father-in-law about the horrors he sees in the hospital every day and reading him newspaper reports about the battles that are devastating the Confederate army? What does Quincy¹s destruction of the Titian painting symbolize? Do you think that the means by which Samuel Tate dies can be justified?

8. Just before she dies, Clarice reveals the terrible secret that shaped Samuel Tate¹s life. Would it have made a difference in their relationship if Emma Garnet had known the truth about her father earlier in life?

9. What kind of life would Emma Garnet have had without Clarice? If she hadn¹t married Quincy? What particular strengths did she get from each of them, and how does she express what she learned in the life she creates for herself after their deaths?

10. How does Emma Garnet¹s view of the Civil War differ from accounts you¹ve read in history books and gleaned from other novels or movies? Kaye Gibbons is from North Carolina; keeping that in mind, do you think the novel reflects a Southern woman¹s perspective, or does it embrace a broader point of view?