Fortune's Rocks (2001) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Dr. John Haskell: A friend of Mr Biddeford, Olympia's lover, husband of Catherine, father of 3
• Olympia: The main character, who is aged 15 at the start of the book, intelligent, well read, older than her years, ahead of her times
• Catherine Haskell: John Haskell's wife
• Mr. Tucker: lawyer, young, fresh out of law school
• Rufus Philbrick: A friend of the Biddeford family and accountant, who resides at Fortune's Rocks, faithful and loyal friend
• Judge Littlefield: The Judge at Ely Falls
• Josiah: Servant to the Biddefords
• Albertine Bolduc: Adopted father of Peter Haskell
• Martha: Dr. Haskell's young daughter
• Zachariah Cote: Friend of the Biddeford family, poet, somewhat sinister character
• Clementine: Add a description of this character.
• Mr. Hardy
• Hale
• Linda
• Pierre Francis Haskell: Child of Olympia and John Haskell
• Rosamund: Olympia's mother. A bit of a wimpy character, somewhat sickly and kept in the background
• Franco: General term for the French at Ely Falls
• Mr. Sears: The solicitor for the opposing side to Olympia
• Mrs. Bonneau
• Andre
• Thomas
• Telesphore: A quiet Franco who becomes entangled in Olympia's mischief
• Randall
• Mother Marguerite Pelletier: Leader of the orphanage at Ely Falls
• Lydia
• Malcolm
• Marie Rivard
• Lisette: Servant to the Biddefords

Quotes edit see section history

• “It is not what we are doing. It is what we are.”

  Olympia

• “And it is only then that she truly understands what she was meant to have known from the very beginning. He is not hers. He was never hers.”

  Olympia

• “To pray is to hope, and to hope is to admit into one's spirit the pain of hopelessness.”

  Olympia

• “... not being able to speak of facts ... one watches them grow and distort themselves and take on greater significance that one ought to allow, the result being that one is crippled by the actions of one's past.”

  Olympia

• “She learns about desire. Desire that slows the breath, that causes a preoccupied pause in the midst of uttering a sentence, that focuses the gaze absolutely on thet progress of naked feet walking toward the water.”

  Olympia

• “Her eyes relax at the horizon, the place where the sea meets the sky, where it appears that all movement has been suspended. And indeed, it seems this day that she herself hovers in a state of suspension -- that she is waiting for something she can hardly imagine and is only beginning to prepare for.”

  Olympia

• “And it strikes Olympia then as astonishing how willing we are to give our hearts -- and indeed our souls-- to someone we hardly know.”

  Olympia

• “For how very different a woman will look when she has happiness, Olympia knows, when her beauty emanates from a sense of well-being or from knowing herself to be greatly loved.”

  Olmypia talking about Haskell

• “To be told not to love is useless, she discovers, for the spirit will rebel.”

  Olympia

• “I cannont imagine not loving him.”

• “Great love comes once and one time only. For by definition, there cannot be two such occurences: The one great love remains in the memory and on the tongue and in the eyes of the once beloved and cannot ever be forgotten.”

• “In our imaginations, we have a lifetime.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• preservation of beauty seems to be all that remains of her mother’s life, as though the other limbs of the spirit — industriousness, curiosity, and philanthropy — have atrophied, and only this one appendage has survived.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• How far, how far, we are willing to go to pretend we are not of the body at all.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• may run through the most complicated of mazes with hazards all about, to ease itself and to salve its wounds.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• A love affair is the sum of many parts — the physical, the sense of being set apart, the jealousy, the loss. It is not a trajectory, not a straight line, but rather a deck of playing cards that has been shuffled, this thing fitting into that thing fitting into this thing.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• astonishing how willing we are to give our hearts — and indeed our souls — to someone we hardly know.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• Upon meeting a person, a sketch is formed, and for the life of the relationship, however intimate or not, a portrait is painted, with oils or with pastels or with black ink or with watercolor, and only at the person’s death can the portrait be considered finished. Perhaps not even at the person’s death.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• watches, she discovers that a dream creates a nonexistent intimacy, that one feels, all the

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Boston
• Miss Biddeford
• Highland Hotel
• Rye
• Massachusetts
• Ely Falls
• New England
• Ezra
• Hastings
• York
• Cambridge
• Exeter
• Windsor

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Anita Shreve (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary