Setting

[Simon & Schuster Canada]

Kate Morton has said that the novel's setting is as important to her as its characters, that Riverton Manor is as much a character of the book as its inhabitants. Do you agree? Does Riverton mirror the fates of the Hartford family and the aristocracy in general? If so, in what ways?

[Sherry]

It's been awhile sine I've read Morton's books, so my memory is somewhat fuzzy. However, I can respond to question not only based on my memory of this novel but on my experience with this in other novels.

[Sherry]

Oops. Continuing . . . Yes, place can be a character with both mirroring each other. I recently read "My Antonia" by Willa Cather, which is another example where the character of the setting is so strong that the fictional characters take on the qualities of the setting. Class is clearly a divider for the characters, and the house, itself, mirrors this division in the upstairs/downstairs boundaries and who may go where or do what.