57 pages • 1 hour read
Fiona DavisThe Address
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “London, June 1884”
Content Warning: The section discusses suicidal ideation, alcohol and substance use disorders, pregnancy loss, abuse, and involuntary hospitalization. In addition, the source text uses outdated language to refer to mental health conditions and psychiatric hospitals, replicated only in quotes in this guide.
Sara Smythe, age 30, was promoted to head housekeeper at the luxurious Langham Hotel one month ago. Though unmarried, Sara uses the honorific Mrs., as is customary for women in this role. Her boss chastises her for being too lenient with the maids, even offering to “slap them” for her if she’d prefer. One day, Sara sits at her desk and looks out the window, noticing a young girl climbing a windowsill across the courtyard. Sara bolts to the apartment and lets herself in. When the child teeters on the railing, Sara yanks her backward, and they fall to the floor. At the noise, the child’s mother enters, and Sara recognizes the Honorable Mrs. Theodore Camden, daughter of a baron and mother of three. Sara explains what happened, and the nanny claims Mr. Camden was there when she left to complete an errand.
Later that day, Theodore Camden thanks Sara. He is an American, “magnetic” in appearance and demeanor. He asks about Sara’s background and explains that he is an architect currently constructing a luxury apartment building called the Dakota in New York City. Impressed with her, Camden offers Sara a job as the building’s head housekeeper. Though she declines, he promises to send a formal letter with the fare to cross the Atlantic when he gets home.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Fishbourne, August 1884”
Sara visits her cranky mother in Fishbourne, where she settled after leaving her position on the Earl of Chichester’s estate 30 years ago. The older woman has a hard time believing it’s been so long—her mind now “soft”—but Sara is certain because the Earl got her mother pregnant, necessitating her mother’s dismissal before Sara’s birth. Her mother chastises her for leaving an apprenticeship with a seamstress, Mrs. Ainsworth, and going into service. The woman tells Sara that a carriage recently ran over Mr. Ainsworth, and Sara thinks about how she would like to have done that herself. Sara mentions the opportunity Mr. Camden offered her in America, though her mother discourages her from taking it. Sara considers her unpleasant boss, frayed nerves, and limited opportunities and reconsiders Camden’s offer.
Chapter 3 Summary: “New York City, September 1985”
In 1985, Bailey Camden waits to see Tristan O’Reilly, her former boss at an interior design firm. She’s been in rehab for three months, after drunkenly and publicly accusing a client of having gaudy taste. Tristan refuses to give Bailey her job back. She leaves to meet Melinda Camden for lunch, passing Strawberry Fields, an area of Central Park being remade as a memorial to John Lennon, who was shot nearby five years earlier. She spots the nearby Dakota, where Lennon lived and died, recalling her family’s visits to the city before her mother’s death.
They called on Sophia Camden and her twins, Melinda and Manvel, once a year around Christmas. When they were kids, Melinda told Bailey the story of her great-grandfather, Theodore Camden, who was murdered. He was stabbed and his finger was removed as a souvenir. Melinda and Bailey grew closer when Bailey moved to the city for college, drinking and using a lot of drugs. Bailey reflects on how her father, Jack, was not up to the task of reining her in after Peggy died. Bailey was 18 then. When Melinda arrives, she looks perfect, as if a bubble of privilege protects her from the humidity and heat.
Chapter 4 Summary: “London, September 1884”
Back in Sara’s timeline, she enjoys her eight-day Atlantic passage. When she spots New York City, she thinks that London is like a “pastoral village” in comparison. A driver collects her, though she is shocked when they appear to leave the city. He says that the Dakota is in the middle of nowhere, and Sara is disappointed by the dismal, unpaved roads. When they arrive, she meets the head porter, Fitzroy. Sara worries she’s made a mistake, especially when she learns that she’s the first of the resident staff to arrive and will be locked in the building alone at night.
Chapter 5 Summary: “New York City, September 1884”
Hammering awakes Sara, and she goes downstairs. Fitzroy ushers her into the dining room and tells her Mr. Camden wishes to see her. The luxury of the public rooms and the Camdens’ apartment astounds her. Camden tells her more about the building and the number of tenants they expect before Mr. Douglas—her new boss—arrives. The man he hired to manage the building reneged, so he offers Sara the position. It’s a step up from head housekeeper, pays more, and confers more responsibility. She will oversee the staff of 150 and general operations. Her first duties are to hire a head housekeeper and speak at the first staff meeting in one hour. Sara meets Daisy Cavanaugh and Mrs. Haines, her assistants. Daisy is friendly and industrious while Mrs. Haines is standoffish and professional. At the meeting, Camden introduces himself and his boss, Henry Hardenbergh. He turns the meeting over to Sara, who speaks confidently and succinctly, earning Camden’s praise.
Chapter 6 Summary: “New York City, September 1985”
Back in 1985, Melinda hugs Bailey warmly and says Bailey was “a trip” on the night preceding her stint in rehab. It was Tristan’s birthday, and she was drunk and high on cocaine. Bailey orders an iced tea, and Melinda gets a vodka. Melinda talks about splitting the Camden inheritance with her twin brother, Manvel, when she turns 30 next month. Though Melinda calls Bailey her cousin, they aren’t related by blood. Bailey’s grandfather took their last name as a ward of the family. Melinda says this doesn’t matter, as she counts Bailey as her cousin regardless. When Bailey tells Melinda she can’t get her position back, Melinda offers Bailey a job renovating her apartment in the Dakota, firing Tristan’s firm. Bailey can stay in the maid’s room during the renovations, and Melinda will pay her once she gets her inheritance.
Melinda hates the Dakota and would rather live on the chicer Upper East Side. Bailey finds the whole place gorgeous, but Melinda thinks it’s too dark and heavy. Melinda hides from the super, Renzo, who she says hates her for no reason. Melinda tells Bailey she wants the apartment to have a “Palm Beach feel” (59), as though guests are entering an Italian beachfront villa. The idea of damaging the woodwork and molding makes Bailey feel ill, but she agrees.
Chapter 7 Summary: “New York City, September 1884”
Sara enjoys working with Daisy, though Mrs. Haines is less pleasant. Mrs. Putnam, a future tenant, arrives for a tour of her apartment with Hardenbergh, and Sara escorts her to Camden’s apartment. The four of them go to her new flat, and Putnam is critical of the design, taking issue with the dark mahogany and demanding more gold leaf. Sara assures the persnickety Putnam she will manage it and suggests ordering a set of Limoges dinnerware to brighten the space. Putnam acquiesces, and Camden thanks Sara for her assistance. He privately tells her that the Dakota is his trial run, and if all goes well, Hardenbergh will help him set up his own firm. Noticing how bright the light is in Camden’s apartment, Sara offers to make him curtains. He proposes to take her into town tomorrow to see the sights and pick out fabric.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
The narrative’s structure creates tension because several major elements of the novel are doubled: there are two geographical settings, two distinct chronologies, and two “main” characters. Before Sara leaves England, she has specific expectations of America based on the Americans she’s met at the Langham Hotel. Theodore, in contrast with his wife—who is English and the daughter of a baron—is “impulsive” and “bold” like many Americans Sara has met. His wife, on the other hand, behaves like a member of the peerage, those who possess a certain “way of moving in the world, a confidence that their every desire would be met” (7). In England, the Earl of Chichester’s position protected him from scandal when he got a maid, Sara’s mother, pregnant. However, Sara reads that, in America, no one focuses on proper titles. She anticipates a place where people—namely women and the working class—enjoy more social equality and respect than they do in England.
Sara’s preconceived notions of the USA are fundamentally challenged by the harsh reality she encounters in New York City. When she arrives, New York City appears to her “like a mouth with too many teeth” where “[n]othing was lovely” (32-33). The simile depicts overcrowding, dinginess, and even a lack of hygiene and care. When she meets her boss, Mr. Douglas, he looks her over “much like a horse dealer might evaluate a disappointing mare” (41), and the chief architect, Mr. Hardenbergh, refers to her as Camden’s “woman”: hardly the respect she anticipated. Sara must even placate affluent American clients, like Mrs. Horace Putnam, who behaves haughtily and rebukes Sara’s friendly attempt at small talk. Neither the differences nor the similarities between London and New York City meet her expectations. Sara’s experiences in New York City reveal a significant discrepancy between her preconceived notions and the reality she faces.
The same can be said of the two time periods the text represents, the 1880s and the 1980s. However, Bailey Camden acknowledges the economic divide between her father, Jack, and her “aunt” Sophia. The wealth disparity between the working class and upper class intensified during both eras, and people sought to capitalize on opportunities to grow rich and indulge in the excesses of the times. The narrative represents this excess by the lavish and ornate interiors of the Dakota in the 1880s and by Melinda Camden’s casual attitudes about money and drug use a century later. Despite the apparent differences between these periods, their underlying social issues remain remarkably similar.
Likewise, the two protagonists—Sara and Bailey—find themselves in similar circumstances, creating tension within their respective environments. Sara’s mother wants more for her than a life in service, but Sara had to leave her sewing apprenticeship and follows in her mother’s footsteps. Bailey’s mother, Peggy, also wanted more for her daughter and advocated for a closer relationship with Bailey’s rich “cousins.” However, her death left Bailey rudderless. While Bailey’s mother wasn’t present physically, Sara’s mother has long been absent emotionally and berated her daughter for every misstep. In leaving England, Sara renders herself vulnerable, in exile from her home and all she knows, and dependent on strangers like Theodore for company and assistance. Both protagonists’ history and family dynamics influence their emotional and material states, introducing the text’s thematic exploration of The Inescapability of the Past.
Bailey is vulnerable as well, having alienated her former employer and resurfaced after three months in rehab. She must rely on Melinda as Sara relies on Theodore. Despite Melinda’s warm hugs, kind words, and generous offer, she walks through the world with privileged untouchability, like Mrs. Camden’s in Sara’s time. Theodore is also relatively untouchable, an educated man and a promising young architect with a wife who grants him a certain pedigree. Sara and Bailey are both women outside their comfort zones, who must take risks, relying on themselves and compelled to trust others who may or may not deserve that trust. The vulnerabilities of both protagonists underscore the tensions arising from their dependence on others and their respective environments, introducing the theme of The Fragile Nature of Trust and Betrayal.
The theme of The Resilience of Women also emerges early in the novel. Bailey insists that being left alone at 18 made her tough. Her father has long been standoffish and emotionally withholding, so when her mother died, she lost the only parent who truly parented her. Sara’s father never acknowledged her, and she was raised by an embittered mother who had to endure her own tragedy. Some apparent catastrophe led to Sara giving up a valuable apprenticeship, and because of her feeling that wanted to run her former employer over herself, her departure is likely due to some abuse from him. Sara’s and Bailey’s mothers endured mistreatment, often at the hands of the men in their lives, and both tried to make decisions that would render their daughters’ lives better than their own. Both fail, with the text instituting it is due to male attitudes or abuse. Nonetheless, Sara and Bailey both endeavor to empower themselves and embrace new opportunities, relying on their talents and scant social resources to persevere.
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