56 pages • 1 hour read
Kate Quinn, Janie ChangThe Phoenix Crown: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Act II”
Part 2, Chapter 29 Summary: “June 23, 1911”
Gemma, Suling, Reggie, and Alice meet at a cafe in Paris, where Gemma tries to make small talk and Suling sews some silk flowers on Alice’s hat. Reggie brags about Suling’s career. Suling and Reggie are able to be affectionate in public here. The women express regret for not visiting each other sooner, and Gemma thinks about what she left out of her letters. Alice then brings up Henry Thornton, who is going by William van Doren and is in Paris with his fiancée. Suling saw him at the Ritz, and they guess his new name is his real one. Reggie mentions how Henry wouldn’t let anyone take his photo. Alice and Gemma don’t want to confront him.
Clarkson is coming to Paris, and Alice believes he’ll put Henry in jail. She argues they should wait for him. They discuss whether there’s any chance he knows they’re alive, which they agree is unlikely. Suling tells them that Reggie hasn’t been able to do any serious painting since the traumatic events. Reggie expresses concern about Henry’s new fiancée, Cecilia Arenburg von Loxen. Given Henry’s history, von Loxen could be in danger.
Part 2, Chapter 30 Summary
After Reggie abruptly leaves the café, Suling follows. Reggie admits that she doesn’t want to talk about Henry, and Suling wants to see him on “trial for murder” (313). Suling now wears Madam Ning’s jade ring on a necklace, and Reggie’s ring on her finger. They take the metro home. Suling recalls going to an antiques store called La Pagode and feeling homesick for San Francisco. The owner is from Shanghai and burns an incense she is familiar with in the store. Suling talks with him for a while and, once home, burns some of his incense for her lost loved ones. After this, Reggie learned to cook some Chinese-style meals. Another famous figure in fashion, Paul Poiret, wants to hire Suling, but she doesn’t want to leave Callot Soeurs.
However, Reggie has been struggling since Alice sent the telegram about the Phoenix Crown. Reggie’s alcohol consumption has increased. After leaving the cafe, Reggie says she wants to murder Henry, but Suling argues there will be justice when he goes to trial. Reggie still wants to warn Henry’s fiancée. Suling gives her space by running to the store. When she gets home, Reggie asks if Suling was invited to Poiret’s costume party, and Suling says she doesn’t plan to go. Reggie apologizes and suggests they invite their friends over so they can meet Gemma’s husband. Then, Reggie cooks dinner and stops drinking. In the morning, Reggie and the invitation are gone.
Part 2, Chapter 31 Summary
Gemma goes back to the hotel and tells George that she’s worried about the mental health of her friends. George suggests he come along next time she meets up with them. They talk about her migraines, and she laments that she can’t take a role with the Paris Opera because she might miss a performance. Gemma has been taking laudanum for her migraines. George plans to meet Clarkson when he arrives. When she feels a migraine coming on, she tells George and suggests they have sex quickly before it gets bad. She worries that she will have to pay for her good luck. In the morning, this feeling is confirmed when Suling arrives and says Reggie stole her ticket to Poiret’s party, which Henry will be attending in Versailles.
Part 2, Chapter 32 Summary
Alice, Gemma, and Suling take a train to Versailles. Suling plans to use the dragon robe to get into the party without a ticket. Other cars on the train are filled with people who will be working as entertainment at the party, such as musicians. They see a horse-drawn carriage marked for the private party and show the driver the robe. Suling claims she needs to get it to a guest at the party and Gemma claims to be part of the entertainment, singing a few bars for him. Alice says she is their chaperone. The driver agrees to take them to the party without tickets. When they arrive, Suling puts on the robe and calls out to Poiret. He compliments the robe and waves them past security and into the party. He directs them to the costumes that guests can wear, then he goes to greet other people.
After they get dressed, Alice, Gemma, and Suling start making rounds of the party. They don’t see Reggie or Henry at first. After an hour of searching, they split up. Suling sees Henry arrive with his fiancée, Cecilia, and her father. Cecilia is wearing the Phoenix Crown. Reggie follows behind them and goes into the women’s restroom with Henry’s fiancée. Suling comes into the restroom as Cecilia storms out angrily.
Part 2, Chapter 33 Summary
Gemma and Alice find Suling and Reggie in the restroom. Suling and Gemma are upset at Reggie for warning Cecilia. They are worried Cecilia will tell Henry about them. Alice calms them down, suggesting they put their masks back on and leave the party. When they are out of the bathroom, Henry spots Suling by the dragon robe, but doesn’t see Reggie, Gemma, or Alice behind some dancers. Henry starts dragging Cecilia to the garden, and the women, outraged at Henry’s violence, follow. They overhear Henry and Cecilia arguing about his San Francisco identity.
When Gemma, Suling, and Reggie confront Henry, Alice is missing. They tell Cecilia that Henry slept with two of them and tried to kill all of them. Henry denies the facts, but flinches when he brushes against a brazier (an outdoor heating device consisting of an open flame inside a metal pot). Suling grabs a torch, Reggie grabs Cecilia, and Gemma pushes Henry. Suling gives Gemma another torch and they corner him against the heater, demanding he tell his fiancée the truth. Alice returns with Cecilia’s father. When Henry tries to make a break for it, Gemma sets his sleeve on fire. Henry is able to put it out and curses at them. He confesses to some of his crimes, and Cecilia throws the Phoenix Crown in the brazier.
Henry hits Cecilia, knocking her down, but Cecilia’s father intervenes and grabs Henry by the throat. Fireworks begin to go off over the party as authorities quietly take Henry away and Gemma tells them to talk to Clarkson when he arrives in town. Later, Alice explains that she left to get a credible witness because the authorities wouldn’t trust the testimonies of the women. After the authorities take Henry away, and Cecilia returns to her hotel, Alice explains everything to Cecilia’s father and asks about his garden.
Part 2, Chapter 34 Summary
When Clarkson arrives, he connects the two aliases, William and Henry, through a paper trail and arrests Henry. The women also testify that Henry is a murderer. In the few days before Clarkson accompanies Henry to stand trial in San Francisco, they all have dinner at Reggie and Suling’s apartment. Clarkson breaks down sobbing over Madame Ning, and George takes him back to the hotel. Gemma says going to the police station was anticlimactic. Alice says, “Anything would be an anticlimax after you cornered Thornton with flaming torches” (349). They joke about the injustice of needing men to confirm their statements. While Reggie cleans up, Alice, Gemma, and Suling look out the windows over Paris and vow to stay in touch. Suling suggests Gemma try acupuncture for her migraines because it helped Reggie with her nightmares. They hope Reggie will start painting again after the trial. Alice says she will go back to the California Academy of the Sciences, and Gemma suggests they all move back to San Francisco. They all agree just as Suling’s cutting of the Queen of the Night Flower blooms.
Epilogue Summary
The epilogue is an excerpt from “Women Artists of the Gilded Age” (355). It contains descriptions of Reggie’s paintings. One is of Alice in 1912 after she returned to the Academy. Another is of Gemma as the character Violetta, which she performed with Caruso in the Teatro Colon in 1917. This painting includes a Queen of the Night flower. A third painting is of Suling sewing a phoenix, with a glimpse of Reggie in the mirror at their home. Suling opened her own atelier in San Francisco. There is also a sketch of Henry/William on trial. He died by suicide shortly after the trial began. The last painting is titled “Phoenix” (357) and portrays Chinatown, with a laundry boy and a madam. Chinatown was reborn like the phoenix after the earthquake and fire in San Francisco.
Part 2-Epilogue Analysis
Act II is set in France in 1911 and focuses on the women confronting Henry. This retribution develops the theme of Sexism and the Intersectional Oppression of Women. Alice knows they need a man of high social status to witness Henry’s confession. She finds a “man whose word wouldn’t be disregarded the way the word of a Chinese seamstress, an out-of-work artist, an old botanist, and a loose-moraled opera singer would be disregarded” (346) while the others advance on Henry with torches. After Henry’s soon-to-be father-in-law hears the confession, and the authorities begin to discreetly intervene, Alice says, “I think the men are going to storm in and take charge now. Shall we let them?” (345). The women did the work of discovering Henry’s true identity (William) and his crimes, but the male authorities end up in control of Henry’s jailing and trial. The authors point out the disparity in Class, Labor, and Gender. Their credible witness is, like Henry, very wealthy, while the four women are not. Men, especially wealthy men, are perceived as more trustworthy than women.
Suling and Reggie’s fluency in the performance of gender becomes a distinct advantage in Act II. Reggie arrives at Poiret’s party wearing “a man’s trousers and waistcoat like a bohemian” (305). This causes the other main characters to mistake her for a man. The characters echo the reader in mistaking Reggie’s gender identity before the second part of Act I. Both Suling and Reggie wear men’s clothes to make their lives easier. Men are able to move more freely in this patriarchal society than women. This privilege intersects with class privilege, evidence of Sexism and the Intersectional Oppression of Women. Upper class women are able to move more freely than lower class women. When Alice, Gemma, and Suling initially try to figure out how to enter the party, they consider the tradesmen’s entrance, but Suling points out, “If we’re to look for Reggie we need the authority to go anywhere we please […] We must enter as guests” (329). Upper-class guests are not hindered in their movements, like working-class employees are.
The image of the elephant emerges as a motif for Gemma in this final section. Gemma’s lung capacity—developed through years of opera training—is often compared to that of an elephant. When the women reunite in Paris, Alice insists that they address the “elephant in the room. The elephant named Thornton” (307). Here, the authors use the idiom that refers to something that people don’t want to discuss. This contrasts with the positive associations created between Gemma and elephants in previous sections. The elephant motif, in including both negative and positive associations, can be compared to the symbolism of fire. The four women, and Henry, are traumatized by fire. However, Henry started the fire that scarred him and the fire in the octagon house that emotionally scarred the four women. When the women confront him at Poiret’s party, Gemma realizes “He’s still terrified of fire” (341). They use torches that are party decorations to convince Henry to confess. In this way, fire is a positive element—it aids survivors of trauma in finding justice.
Finally, when Henry’s new fiancée, Cecilia, discovers he is a murderer, she burns the titular Phoenix Crown. This recalls how Gemma mentally describes ending her relationship with Henry as burning it down in Part 2 of Act I, right before the earthquake and subsequent fires change her plans. Destroying Henry’s prized possession, which he puts on both Gemma and Cecilia, is symbolically destroying his power over women. The loss of his prized possessions and reputation causes him to kill himself during his trial. This fact is revealed in the Epilogue. The authors use descriptions of Reggie’s paintings of her friends and enemy to reveal what happened to the main characters. The final chapter before the Epilogue ends with the women watching a Queen of the Night flower bloom, symbolizing the way their friendship endured through all the trauma they experienced.
