Yes! I was in shock when I read and saw pictures of the artifacts found at Sutton Hoo. The book did not prepare me.
Welcome @nottelling and thanks for joining us!
I agree. Even though their interaction was brief, there was some powerful chemistry between those two characters. I wanted moreâŠbut throwing out clues and forcing us to read between the lines seemed to be what Preston was going for.
Thanks for bringing this up; it confused me. Were the servants quitting because they were afraid of impending war and moving to areas that they thought were safer? Why did it happen so suddenly and mysteriously on the part of Ellen? *âI am afraid I am having to leave your employ with immediate effect due to personal reasonsâ/i.
Here is what Peggy says about Phillips at their first meeting: âWhen Stuart introduced me, his gaze ran up and down me in a quite blatant manner. Not just once either, but several timesâ (p. 137).
You know where my fevered imagination went? I thought that Phillips was puzzling out how and why Peggy would have married Stuart, a man that he knew was gay. Later, it appeared that Phillips was just sizing her upâliterallyâto see if she was small enough to crawl into tight spaces at the dig site.
But what about Stuart? Was he gay? Asexual? Or just British? 
What are we supposed to take away from the bath tub scene? The average newlywed on his honeymoon would have been more likely to climb into the tub with his new wife, rather than leave immediately and scold her later for leaving the door unlocked. Stuart also seemed way too content with the twin bed setup. My sense is that Peggy was looking for close friendship and stability after a traumatic childhood, and was willing to sacrifice a physical relationship for those qualitiesâa decision she soon regretted.
I enjoyed this selection, like most of you, and had similar thoughts about its strengths and weaknesses. Most important, however, for me were: a. the easy style of writing that made it a quick, compelling read, and b. the minimal but intriguing details given about the âtreasureâ, starting with the first unearthed artifact that prompted an immediate web search for visuals. I wanted to know more!
I was most bothered by the unresolved story lines of almost all the characters and their relationships including the sad mystery of the Piggott marriage. Honestly, I thought that Phillips might hit not on Peggy, but her husband! I also thought it shocking that the Piggotts were dismissed so abruptly, especially since they had made the incredible discovery of the jeweled items.
For such a breezy read about such a historical find, I found this to be a very sad story.
Editing because I just read Maryâs post, #21. Yes, I had these same questions about Stuart and his wife. The bathtub scene, the dismissal scene, the dining room scene in which Peggy learned of the photographerâs enlistment were just so sad.
Welcome @nottelling! I forgot to mention that in my earlier post.
I think it is possible that Stuart was gay. It would be hard to explain their newlywed behavior otherwise. I read his obituary in my google travels. I donât believe he married again after he and Peggy divorced. They were married for a while, Wikipedia says 1936-1956. If 1936 is correct, then would have been on their honeymoon in 1939.
I donât think the servants would have considered Sutton Hoo unsafe.
It was a time of great upheaval. Some reasons for servantsâ leaving that I can imagine:
- Becoming a soldier.
- Marrying someone who would be going off to war.
- Being physically present for a parent with offspring going off to war.
- Seeking one of the new kinds of jobs that would become available.
Question - What is Mrs. Pretty health story in the book? She is losing her hair, not eating very much, often cold, nervous about Robert knocking her over. Is she ill. Depressed? I read she had typhus when she was pregnant with Robert. Does she have lingering issues? She was born in 1883 and died in 1942 at 59. She was still pretty young.
I got the idea that Sutton Hoo was such a lonely isolated place that it would be a hard place to be a servant. I got the feeling that the remaining servants were sort of the last hold outs in a rapidly changing world. My sense was that it was just too unbearably lonely for the governess to return, but I admit there is not a lot of textual evidence for that. It is certainly how I would have felt if I were the governess.
Itâs often said that British novels are almost always about class, even when that is not the ostensible subject. I definitely got that feeling here, but I had a harder time working out the significance of some of the class issues than I normally do with British novels. Or, not the significance exactly, but what meaning the author was trying to convey with all of the complex class hierarchies.
I figure the butler Grateley has something to do with the governess choosing not to return for personal reasons and the tears and discomfort of Mrs. Prettyâs maid Ellen. Mrs. Pretty discovers an unmade bed and has a pointed but oblique conversation with Grateley.
Anyway, age old reasons for young girls leaving their employment.
I think the book implies that the characters knew the historical significance of the find. There were a few places (I believe) where characters said, in effect, that these artifacts would radically change the conception of the middle ages in the Anglo Saxon world as the dark ages, and would make apparent that it actually was a time of artistic and technical innovation. Consistent with the rest of the book, however, these sorts of statements were not put into context, and there was no explanation as to how and why that was. But I got the impression that the characters themselves knew; the detail just wasnât shared with us, the readers!
One thing that I found extremely frustrating in the book was the lack of any context about other archaelogical finds in the area prior to this one. Or, if it was there in the book, I somehow missed it.
There were these mounds on the Pretty land, and Mrs. Pretty decides to dig them up based on her late husbandâs hunch that there might be something of archaelogical significance in there. I wanted to know why he thought that â were there other mounds in the area that had yielded finds? What were they expecting to find? Was it just a complete folly to expect that there would be something in the mounds, making the discovery all the more shocking? Or does everyone know (except me!) that if thereâs a mound on the English countyside thereâs going to SOMETHING in there (if the thieves of the prior generations had not already dug it up)? Obviously, the specifics of the find were a complete shock to everyone, but were they expecting to find something, and if so, what? And why?
The lack of any of that context added to the dreamy, dissociative quality of the book â especially Mrs. Prettyâs section[s]. I think that was a very intentional choice by the author to invoke that mood through that technique, but I found it frustrating.
As I said, I may have just missed all this, so feel free to correct! (I did feel myself skimming in parts, despite the brevity of the book.)
PS i have no idea why some lines are crossed out in my prior message, or how to correct that!
Other mounds had been investigated and yielded some minor finds, but many of them had obviously been looted, and therefore not very much was expected at Sutton Hoo. That husband was a smart cookie!
It just fascinates me that those mounds were sitting there, minimally explored. Almost gives me goosebumps.
Thanks, @ignatius, I had completely forgotten about the unmade bed. Mrs. Pretty is no fool â despite saying that she doesnât know who is responsible, her final remark of âbe sure to give my regards to Mrs. Grateleyâ makes it quite clear that she does know. Poor Ellen.
I believe that an awful lot of mounds were long since emptied once they stopped worrying about the wrath of older gods. If this link works it talks about it a bit: https://books.google.com/books?id=gGISVw-TBTsC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=how+many+barrows+have+treasure&source=bl&ots=Sx1dj-MmBR&sig=FQAPvstAA-qUdgZy5Fu1Iux2Y0Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivsNKV5YfNAhWMox4KHSHdBFkQ6AEIYTAJ#v=onepage&q=how%20many%20barrows%20have%20treasure&f=false
The law of Treasure Trove (before 1997) is pretty weird. If someone buries treasure with the intention of getting it back, but then doesnât. If it canât be proved who it originally belonged to it goes to the owner of the land if they find it, or half to the finder and the rest to the owner of the land if someone else finds it. If itâs something that isnât intended to be retrieved (like a burial) then itâs not Treasure Trove and it belongs to the state who may or may not reimburse you for the value. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove
I had a completely different interpretation of the slept in bed in the unused portion of the house. I thought it was a dream. That passage ends with Mrs. Pretty waking up not remembering getting back to bed. She also mentions she feels like she is sleepwalking when all this happens. I thought Grateleyâs response was him trying to be polite when he really believes she is losing it.
At the end of the unmade bed passage Mrs. Pretty asks Grateley about his lumbago.
Why was his composure badly holed? I think itâs because she had asked him the same thing just a few days earlier. I really think Mrs. Pretty was ill or depressed and the staff was tiptoeing around her pretending it wasnât happening.
[quote=page18]
âŠI asked after Grateleyâs wife - she works as a nurse at the cottage hospital.
âSheâs quite well, thank you, maâam.â
âAnd you, Grateley, how are you?â
âI too am quite well,â he allowed.
âIs your lumbago any better?â
âStill playing up a little maâam. But nothing to complain about.â
And I was shocked that Stuart accidentally returned to the pub with gold artifacts in his pocket! In a fictional story, that would have been the start of a disastrous plot turn.
I think the archaeologists at Sutton Hoo were fully aware of the historical and monetary value of their find, but there was just no protocol. No rules, no written instructions, no real chain of command. Itâs a good thing that everyone involved appeared to be honest, careful and collaborative, or much of the treasure might have been either inadvertently destroyed or deliberately âdisappeared.â
I was thrilled by the entire archeological tale, reallyâŠimagine. All those centuries had passed and that treasure was there. Thereâs probably not a person alive, especially as a child, who has not daydreamed about finding treasure.
I canât help but be morbidly curious about the Piggottâs marriage situation. In fact, I was a little surprised at the turn in the book and Peggy wondering why she was not enough for her husband, or some such. I wonder if it was an unhappy marriage all along and that was told to him by the cousin along with the âflirtationâ with Rory? It really didnât contribute at all to the story but I guess he was trying to âflesh outâ the characters and make it a little more interesting.
@Caraid, thatâs an interesting interpretation. I agree Mrs. Pretty was depressed and in poor health. I wonder if she was taking any medication that might have caused her sleeplessness and memory issues. If she was âlosing it,â it would have been only temporary because when she died in 1942, she was a magistrate. A little history of Edith Pretty: http://www.eadt.co.uk/ea-life/the_woman_who_gave_us_sutton_hoo_1_78723
The internet tells me that hair loss after Typhus is a thing, so that may account for Prestonâs inclusion of that particular ailment.
Great discussion everyone! Thinking about all of these details is increasing my fondness for the book. Regarding her health, I just remembered another sign that the people around her were worried about her â her chauffeur followed her around town, seemingly to look after her.
When I first read the lumbago passages, I took it as a sign of the shallowness of the relationship between Mrs. Pretty and the butler, that her mind was elsewhere and was just participating in the conversation by rote. Youâve all now convinced me that it probably was a sign of her illness.
And, I agree with Mary â I was also shocked by the lack of security over the site, such that Stuart could walk off temporarily with a priceless artifact.
We havenât talked about the fact that she visited a medium. What did folks think about that, from a storytelling perspective?
And Iâm curious about your views on this question: How much of the power of the book comes from the fact that this was based on a true story? Would this book work at all if this were a fictional dig?
The entire âpowerâ of this book, comes from the fact this was a true story!
A couple chapters into the book, I was curious about the names, miss "Pretty"Mr âBrownâ, and it was then I googled, and learned this was based on a true story, these were real names. And,I am thankful for the internet to supply photos of the items discovered, and significance of these finds, because John Preston, does a poor job of explaining the significance, and describing the beautiful artifacts.( technically not a treasure trove according to @mathmomâs interesting link)
As others have said the book, ironically called âthe digâ but superficial in itâs details, plot and character development. I knew nothing about Sutton Hoo, and learned a lot!
What I didnât learn until after reading the book, was that John Preston is related to Peggy, explaining his personal bias.
John Preston, did an excellent job portraying the âpassionâ these local folks had for âtheirâ discovery. Miss Prettyâs motivation, Mr Brownâs unsophisticated, but authentic love for the land, and the simple joys of a lonely boy enjoying the excitement of the dig, the camaraderie of the men, his substitute father figures.
As @Mary13 mentioned,it was shocking that the artifacts were brought to the local pub! Incredible action. However, I was insulted when the British Museum moved in to take over, as they had to, but I had aligned with those who worked so hard.
I kept waiting for a climatic moment, which never happened. The courtroom scene, lacked power and tension. Peggyâs lovely dalliance with her photographer went no where.
Was that the point? Are we supposed to just have glimpses of those lives who have occupied the land, this space? Are we left with mysteries, just like who was actually buried? Are we to think of the Nazis and the tanks which would trample the earth, as just another layer of humanityâs footprint, of the loves, and horrors, and all the untold human stories repeating century after century ?
I finished this book and thought of the phrase " Let the Great World Spin"âŠ
@Mary13 good link to article about Edith, which is better depiction of her than Prestonâs. Love the statement her life hours be a movie role for Helen Miren.
From the article health issue mentioned.