58 pages • 1 hour read
Marie BenedictLady Clementine
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A 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 4, Chapters 27-45Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4, Chapter 27 Summary
September 1, 1939
London, England
At parliament, Clementine watches from the gallery as Winston waits to speak. Hitler has invaded Poland, and Neville Chamberlain, then prime minister, has failed to appease Hitler. Clementine recalls how clearly she and Winston have recognized Hitler’s aggression, noting that Chartwell became a center for those who recognized Hitler’s threat. Back in the present, Clementine catalogs how Winston and his fellow politicians will demonstrate Chamberlain’s weakness.
Part 4, Chapter 28 Summary
September 3, 1939
London, England
After Churchill’s activities on September 1, Chamberlain declares war on Germany. The first of many air raid sirens blares out, and the Churchills take shelter with others, who take solace from Winston’s and Clementine’s calm. Winston meets with Chamberlain later in the day. Clementine waits in their car in front of 10 Downing Street, until Winston appears. Grinning, he tells the driver to take them to Admiralty Street. Chamberlain has made Winston first lord of the admiralty.
Part 4, Chapter 29 Summary
May 6 and 10, 1940
London and Hertfordshire, England
Clementine surveys Admiralty House, which they have converted to a center for naval operations, transforming the large state rooms and living spaces into working areas. Clementine removes much of the luxury of the previous occupant, choosing more muted tones and colors. Clementine catalogs her charity work, raising funds for minesweepers. Thinking of her children, she remembers that Randolph married Pamela Digby before joining the military.
Back in the present, Clementine comforts her sister Nellie, whose husband dies from cancer and whose son Giles has been captured by the Germans. Winston calls Clementine, alerting her that the Germans have advanced toward England, invading France, Holland, and Belgium. He also alerts her that Chamberlain has stepped down and named Churchill as his pick for the next prime minister.
Part 4, Chapter 30 Summary
June 17-18, 1940
London, England
As the staff ask Clementine to proofread Winston’s speech, Clementine relates how difficult Winston acts with the staff, including a young typist, Miss Hall. Clementine talks to Miss Hall, offering support and telling her that Winston will stop dictating his letters from his afternoon bath. As Clementine reviews the speech, she tells Winston to use simpler language. She reminds him that he speaks for all the people and must unite them. The next day he gives the speech in the House of Commons.
Part 4, Chapter 31 Summary
July 2-6, 1940
London, England
Behind a closed door at Downing Street, Clementine hears Winston’s private secretary Jock Colville and others criticize her and compare her to Neville Chamberlain’s wife. Choosing not to confront them, Clementine plans to use this knowledge later.
Later, Clementine attends the christening of a ship in Winston’s absence and confronts Jock in the car ride back. As she tells him that Jock will accompany her whenever Winston is absent, Jock recoils at the idea. Clementine counters with her vision of a war conducted not just by soldiers, but also by women at home, and she silences him. After they return to Downing Street, Clementine meets with Jock and Winston and proposes to employ women in the war effort to make munitions and run operations at home and occasionally help at the front. They both agree.
Part 4, Chapter 32 Summary
October 25 to November 1940
London, England
As Clementine considers her position and that of other women in marriage, a bomb strikes close to Downing Street, with the force shattering windows. Three civilians die in the bomb, and they transform Downing Street after, reinforcing ceilings and walls and creating subterranean living quarters. The government creates a more suitable option in an annex to Downing Street.
Later, in nightly visits to bombed areas of London, Clementine observes the ruined state of buildings across London and the squalid conditions of bomb shelters Londoners encounter.
Part 4, Chapter 33 Summary
November to December 1940
London, England
Determined to improve the conditions of these shelters, Clementine gathers letters and evidence for improvements. Together with her first-hand observations, she uses these letters to propose waterproofing for air raid shelters, clean bedding, and sanitary toilet facilities. In a meeting later with representatives including the Minister of Health, Clementine faces resistance and dismissive attitudes. As Randolph’s son and her grandchild begins to cry and interrupt the meeting, Clementine asks if the men assembled would allow their children and grandchildren to spend nights in these unsanitary air raid shelters.
Part 4, Chapter 34 Summary
December 2, 1940
London, England
Clementine begins her shift as fire watcher, a role shared by citizens of London to warn against fires caused by bombs. While Winston protests, Clementine ascends to the roof, relieving an older gentleman, who instructs her how to warn about fires and how to take shelter if bombs fall directly on her. As bombs fall, she calls on the phone, warning the firefighters about smoke and bombs. Seeing the destruction from the air directly affects her, the soldiers suggest she return to Downing Street in the lull which follows. She refuses and promises to fulfill her duty.
Part 4, Chapter 35 Summary
December 12-13, 1940
London, England
Winston, Clementine, and Charles de Gaulle toast to a free France with Winston’s favorite champagne. De Gaulle has left France following the Nazi takeover and the installation of the Vichy government. Clementine observes that Winston had the French fleet destroyed in North Africa, following France’s defeat. De Gaulle mentions this in his toast following Winston’s, enraging Clementine. She thinks about their sacrifices and how, previously, they forced their family to remain in England rather than escape to less dangerous places. Back in the present, Clementine tells de Gaulle in French that he has overstepped in his toast. The next morning, de Gaulle sends Clementine flowers as an apology.
Part 4, Chapter 36 Summary
December 24, 1940
Buckinghamshire
Clementine celebrates Christmas Eve at Chequers with her family, noting her children’s marriages and their happiness, saving much of her critique for Randolph. Both Winston and Clementine wish that their own mothers could be at Chequers, the official country residence of the prime minister.
Nostalgic for Terence and Bali, Clementine recalls her memorial to her dove, a present from Terence, that she saw weeks earlier in the garden at Chartwell. Returning to her observations about dinner, Clementine records their toasts and her grief for Bill, Kitty, her mother, and Marigold.
Part 4, Chapter 37 Summary
January 9 to February 10, 1941
London, England
The Churchills host lunch for Harry Hopkins, one of Roosevelt’s closest friends and advisors to enlist American help with the war. As Clementine prepares for lunch, Winston speaks dismissively toward Clementine, and, after he apologizes, they promise to have a united front. The Churchills then arrange for Harry to enjoy a visit to Ditchley to enjoy a grand home in the country.
Clementine then takes Harry on a tour of sites ruined by the Blitz. Mortified by the destruction, Harry marvels at the bravery of the English, and then he tours some of the air raid shelters. Harry promises to help the Churchills and to advocate for them endlessly.
Part 4, Chapter 38 Summary
March 10 to April 15, 1941
London and Buckinghamshire, England
Roosevelt still refuses to enter the war. Clementine and Winston meet the new American ambassador Gil Winant, who declines King George IV’s invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace. Clementine hosts a dinner for Gil and then invites him to join them at Chequers.
At the dinner at Chequers, Gil flirts with the Churchills’ daughter Sarah. The next day Averell Harriman, a businessman sent by Roosevelt to coordinate the transfer of weapons to Britain, joins them at Chequers. Clementine imagines how affairs between Sarah and Gil and between Averell and Pamela might help the war effort.
Part 4, Chapter 39 Summary
August 4 and 9, 1941
London and Buckinghamshire, England
Clementine nervously watches the time pass, as she waits for Roosevelt to reach out to her husband. The president does, and Winston prepares to leave for Washington. Afterward, Clementine travels to Champneys, a place for her to relax and discuss her marriage and fatigue with Dr. Lief.
Part 4, Chapter 40 Summary
December 7, 1941
London and Buckinghamshire, England
Clementine joins Winston on a train tour of bombarded sites, wearing her headscarf in the style of women working in factories. Clementine describes the speech that Winston makes after each tour of bombed-out England and characterizes it as an appeal for solidarity and unity. Clementine recalls that a week before Winston had to tell Nellie that her son Esmond died in the war.
Later at a fireside at Chequers, the Churchills and their guests discuss the war over port. Clementine confesses that Pamela and Averell Harriman are sleeping together, and the affair might have positive consequences for the Anglo American alliance. Clementine doesn’t discourage it. Clementine has started a fund to rebuild Russia and to offer them aid. As they discuss the war at Chequers, her attention turns toward it. The next morning, Winston wakes Clementine and tells her that Pearl Harbor has been bombed, and America has declared war.
Part 4, Chapter 41 Summary
October to November 1942
London and Buckinghamshire, England
Eleanor Roosevelt and Clementine meet in the United Kingdom as Eleanor visits the country. Clementine offers to give her a tour, but Eleanor turns her down, suggesting she has come as an extension of the president.
Clementine shows Eleanor the many projects in London supporting the war, especially those which involve women. Clementine and Eleanor work through packed schedules, and Clementine finds Eleanor to be more energetic than she is. The women discuss their husbands and situations; Eleanor confesses that Winston dismissed Clementine’s active role during his previous visit to the White House. Incensed, Clementine confronts Winston, whose explanations make her angrier.
Later, during her farewell dinner, Eleanor and Winston disagree about what’s necessary for peace, and neither will budge. As the men and women separate following dinner, Eleanor and Clementine vow to keep the alliance between their husbands strong.
Part 4, Chapter 42 Summary
August 1943
Quebec, Canada, and Washington, DC
The tide of the war begins to turn in the Allies’ favor, even as Clementine notes distance between Winston and the Russians and Americans. Despite domestic discord—Randolph and Pamela have separated—Clementine attends a conference with Winston in Quebec to bring Roosevelt closer to Winston. Nicknamed the “Quadrant,” this secret meeting brings together leaders of America, the UK, Russia, and Canada, until Roosevelt cuts out the Canadian prime minister.
Once they meet, Clementine finds Roosevelt cold and inauthentic, but Winston and Clementine stay at the White House following the conference. Clementine gives a speech and handles the questions from reporters after with aplomb.
Part 4, Chapter 43 Summary
December 16, 1943, to January 14, 1944
London, England; Carthage and Tunis, Tunisia; and Marrakech, Morocco
Clementine receives word that Winston has become gravely ill. Clementine recalls that she has been worried about his health, especially as he travels, trying to maintain contact with Roosevelt. The letter implores Clementine to come to Tunis, and she boards the only available airplane she can take, an unheated bomber.
Seeing Winston, Clementine expresses shock at his condition. She begins to nurse him back to health and they celebrate Christmas together, as Randolph reunites with his father after not speaking to him for almost two years. Worried that Winston will be sidelined by his health problems, Clementine takes control and instructs de Gaulle to remain allied with Churchill.
Part 4, Chapter 44 Summary
June 5-6, 1944
London, England
Churchill awakens Clementine, as he has another nightmare about Operation Overload, or the invasion of France by the Allied Forces on D-Day. Churchill dreams that thousands die as the Allied forces face German resistance. Clementine calms Churchill, and he goes back to sleep.
The next day proceeds as usual, Clementine observes, and they dine together alone, which they rarely have done since the war began. Wondering about Eleanor on D-Day, Clementine comforts Roosevelt throughout the day, advising him that any loss of blood on D-Day will be balanced by the resulting peace.
Part 4, Chapter 45 Summary
May 12, 1945
London, England
As Clementine’s plane lands and she returns from Russia, she considers how the Russians have recognized her charity work for them. Remembering that she raised 8 million pounds to rebuild Russia, Clementine considers how she helped Russia despite Stalin’s and Roosevelt’s takeover of the war. She recalls her visit to Russia and meeting with Stalin, whom she gave a gold pen from both the Churchills.
After a terse meeting, Clementine took a train through Russia, touring the sites she helped rebuild, including a children’s hospital the Nazis purposely targeted. During her trip, Clementine heard that Roosevelt died, and she worried about Eleanor. Back in the present, Clementine and Roosevelt reunite and consider their place in history and peace.
Part 4, Chapters 27-45 Analysis
War again threatens Europe and brings The Nature of Marriage and Partnership back to the fore, as these last chapters present Clementine as a battle-hardened political force whose experiences with Winston make possible her most important role. As Clementine negotiates the dynamics among Roosevelt, de Gaulle, the Russians, and her husband, the role of Britain begins to reflect her own and that of her female compatriots in England. Pushed to the side by the emerging powers and the relationship between them, Britain embodies the secondary role that Clementine has long held in Winston’s life: the reader of every speech, the defender of every foible, and the constant support upon which the more visible power depends.
Britain’s role transforms as Winston’s health declines. Toward the end of the novel, Winston must follow the president, a fact that demonstrates the diminishing of Britain’s formal role in peace and war. In the leadup to D-Day, Winston’s own subservient role to President Roosevelt makes this transformation clear, as Clementine remarks:
Despite my pleas that he was too ill to continue, he insisted on flying from Tehran to Cairo to pursue Roosevelt, and after that, despite his worsening condition, he refused to abandon a subsequent flight to Tunis to meet with President Eisenhower. All because he didn’t want to appear weak to the American president (350).
Echoes of Clementine’s previous behavior pepper Clementine’s description of Winston’s pursuit of Roosevelt and the American alliance, once more evoking The Complexities of History and Gender. Just as she left confinement and her bed, mortgaging her health for the sake of Winston’s career, Winston ignores his own health, following a man whose ambitions visibly outweigh his own. Clementine characterizes Winston’s efforts as a hedge against appearing weak, which resounds in her own past behavior. Avoiding the appearance of weakness in the past, Clementine has hidden her own feelings, needs, and health to make possible Winston’s rise. Now, Winston is learning what it means to be subservient, and in turn, he relies more openly and willingly on Clementine’s wisdom and confidence to navigate the political waters.
Winston’s weakness also enables Clementine to assert herself more openly and vocally. She advocates for The Role of Women in WWII, pushing back against the sexism and gender dynamics of the time to assert the worthy contributions women can make alongside men in Britain’s war effort. She becomes a more active public figure and political dealmaker in her own right, serving as a fire watcher despite Churchill’s objections and speaking her mind openly to Eleanor Roosevelt to secure the Anglo American alliance. In undertaking charitable fundraising for Russia and, later, meeting with Stalin, Eleanor steps forward as someone who has gained real political acumen and who is unafraid to exercise power and influence on her own terms. While the working-class and middle-class women of Britain step forward to serve the war effort publicly, Eleanor also steps forward to take a more active role in the political machinations of history.
The bond between Clementine and Eleanor also reflects The Complexities of History and Gender. As Eleanor and Clementine bond over sharing the burden of needy and important men, Eleanor discusses how she uses that dynamic to forge her own path. Like Clementine, Eleanor recognizes in her own marriage “what everyone already knows—that her husband keeps a veritable harem of adoring women at his beck and call and that his marriage is primarily a political alliance” (333). If it is a political alliance, then Eleanor embraces it, finding in that relationship room to find her own path. She notes, “[A]s he became president and his power has expanded onto the international stage, my place has diminished. Once his focus changed from welfare to weapons, I decided I would operate independently of him” (333, emphasis added). Mirroring Clementine’s own transformation, Eleanor learns how to function as a political player in her own right instead of serving as a mere handmaiden to her husband’s ambitions.
Clementine’s own desire to remain important and, most crucially of all, visible in history remains. In the frantic end to the war, Winston and Clementine shore up Britain’s place in a post-war world where the fortunes of the United States and Russia loom large. She wonders, “When the successors to our time appraise Winston and this awful war […] I know they will see Winston’s hand on the pen that scribes history. But, I wonder, will they see that my hand has also been on the pen all along?” (375-76, emphasis added). In reflecting that her own hand “has also been on the pen” that Winston uses to write history through both his writings and his political actions, Clementine once again draws attention to the important and equal role she has played both in their marriage and in the political affairs that have shaped their lives. Clementine closes the novel by recognizing her own power, but she is still aware that it is an open question whether later generations will do the same.
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