5. Why does Clara feel a “tinge of condescension” from the other women in her social circle? What does art have to do with Clara’s gloomy feelings about her marriage?
6. Describe Steichen and Clara as parents. How do their attitudes as parents contrast with their feelings for each other?
7. Describe the different sides of France that Mitchell depicts in The Last Summer of the World. What draws Steichen, Mildred Aldrich, Marion Beckett, and other Americans to live there? How are their feelings for France different than the army pilots and photographers Steichen oversees during the war?
8. Before she acts to destroy Steichen’s photographs, Clara vows to herself to reveal “the world’s secret mechanisms.” What does Clara mean by this statement? To what extent is she successful?
9. When is Steichen first attracted to Marion? How do his feelings for her evolve?
10. “Photography claims to capture the world as it really is. But in fact it does not do this; because time doesn’t stop, the world cannot be captured, only evoked. So it is the artist, not the photographer, who tells the truth.” Who says this to Steichen? Does Steichen come to believe that photographs are “lies”? Can you draw any similarity between the qualities of a photograph and the way Clara and others interpret Steichen’s behavior?
11. Describe the cultural and legal attitudes toward marriage and divorce at the time the novel is set. Do you think that Clara’s lawsuit is justified? Was it unethical for Steichen to lie about his affair with Marion while under oath?
12. In the novel’s final scene, Amelie returns to Steichen the brown leather case containing some of the photographs his daughter saves. Why do you think Mitchell chooses to end the novel with this scene? If you had not gone on to read the historical note at the end of the novel, what would you have imagined Steichen doing for the rest of his life after this final scene?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A native of London, Emily Mitchell has also lived in Japan and the United States. She received a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA from Brooklyn College. Her fiction has appeared in AGNI, Indiana Review, and New England Review. She teaches creative writing at the University of West Virginia. The Last Summer of the World is her first novel.
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Copyright © 2007 by Emily Mitchell
All rights reserved
First published as a Norton paperback 2008
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 FifthAvenue, NewYork, NY 10110
Book design by Anna Oler
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Mitchell, Emily.
The last summer of the world / Emily Mitchell.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-393-06487-2
1. Steichen, Edward, 1879–1973—Fiction. 2. Photographers—Fiction.
3. France—History—1914–1940—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.I854L37 2007
813’.6—dc22
2007005200
ISBN 978-0-393-33194-3 pbk.
ISBN 978-0-393-24789-3 (e-book)
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