Chapters 17, 18 and 19 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 17: The Sweet Young Thing

In some letters to her sons, Elisabeth described the Palais where she grew up, providing them with details about where art objects were located or stored. She described paintings and other art objects in various rooms and when describing her mother's dressing room, she mentioned a tall black lacquer cabinet with green velvet-lined shelves. Why would Emmy have placed the vitrine in her dressing room where no visitors would see it? Perhaps it wasn't that interesting to her. Or perhaps she admired them and wanted to keep them as her private treasure. There were indicationss that Emmy had her share of lovers over the years. Edmund can envision that the much older Viktor may have been remote and somewhat distant with his young wife. Perhaps she longed for intimacy that he could not give...