Summary

In Chapter 9, Jacob takes a vacation to Essex, where he stays in an inn, dines with wealthy society women, and takes horse rides across the nearby fields. Jacob is joined on this vacation by Bonamy, and Jacob and Bonamy discuss art and politics with the other residents of the inn. Jacob meets an attractive and intelligent young woman named Laurette. However, their vacations do not overlap for very long, and Jacob must return to London. There, he spends much time in the British Museum, which the narrative describes as “an enormous mind” (108) containing an incomprehensible amount of human thought and history. Jacob spends his time there reading old classics, such as Plato and Aristotle, as well as works of literary scholarship, such as essays on Shakespeare and Marlowe. Each day, Jacob sees different people in the museum, suggesting that he is one of...