Chapter Synopsis

Memoirs of a London Doll
March 30, 2009

Chapter 17: Conclusion

Maria is taken to a dressing room by Columbine and introduced to Columbine’s grandmother, who is presently dressed as a dragon for the Pantomime. When the play is over, Maria is taken home by Columbine and her grandmother. They live in a very humble back parlor of a small greengrocer’s, near Covent Garden. They all had a pleasant evening discussing the Pantomime and then went to bed.

The next morning Maria was put away, as Columbine had too much to do to attend to Maria. However, used to being alone at times, Maria employed her time by thinking over her past life from the day of her birth to the present time.

After the Christmas Pantomime was over, Columbine and her grandmother went to the country to act at a small theatre. After three weeks of performances, Columbine held a benefit night. A kindly lady, who resided at a country mansion called Ashbourn Hall, took so many tickets for Columbine’s benefit that her party filled all three front boxes.

Grateful for Mrs. Ashbourn’s kindness, Columbine decides to give Maria to her daughter. Columbine and Maria are shown into a beautiful drawing room and Columbine explained she was here to thank Mrs. Ashbourn for her kindness and to ask her to allow her daughter to accept a doll from Columbine.

Mrs. Ashbourn thanked her and said her little girl would be delighted to have such a pretty doll, and so Maria was placed into the little hands of her present dear mamma, Lucy Ashbourn.

Marie feels settled for life. Only yesterday, her mamma told her papa that when she was too old to play with Maria, she would give Maria to her sister. She took the greatest of care with Maria, even to the point of matching morning dresses, afternoon dresses, and night clothes. Maria even has a little chest of drawers for her things. She has a little bed, with white curtains and nice blankets and sheets in which Lucy places her each night. She brushes Maria’s hair and always dresses her for dinner.

Maria also has made the acquaintance of another doll that lives in a country house near Ashbourn Hall. When the dolls sit in the garden while their mammas play, they talk; and Country Doll has told Maria the history of her life. Maria hopes that someday the story of Country Doll will be published as Maria’s story has been.

DISCUSSION:

I liked the ending, where she is finally safe and sound in her new home. I especially like the fact that her new Mamma already has a contingency plan in place--when she is too old for dolls she will pass Maria on to her little sister!
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I wish there had more about Maria in the country with her new doll friend, and I wish the author had written a book about the country doll.
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There were supposed to be several books of doll stories...

I thought it was funny that she had the contingency plan...it seemed to me that just meant she'd be moving on to yet another owner/mama and her story would go on endlessly.
If it were written today I think it might be called "Sisterhood of the Traveling Doll", as it seems her entire purpose is to move on to a new owner, never getting attached to any one owner.

Wouldn't it be funny if the writer had written all the doll books he planned to, and then a final book? Each doll in individual chapters would end up in the same doll museum. Then the last chapter could be about all the different dolls spending the rest of their time telling each other all the adventures they had.
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That's what I would have done!! Since they were apparently supposed to be connected (Maria meets the Country Doll) I would have them all come together in the end.
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Now that would be quite an ending, with all of them together and all with various stories to tell. Surely some of them would have been lost, as in real life, dolls get mislaid, broken, tossed. It would be a miracle if they all showed up together in a doll museum. And would they even like each other? I am reminded of Marchpane and Tottie of the Dolls' House book that we read. They new each other from the past and had a definite dislike for each other. This could be interesting. Do you want to write the story??

I wonder why they moved the doll from one owner to another, and to another. It seems as though a doll could have adventures with just one owner or maybe two. I suppose it is “in the script" and that is the way it is.

It also seemed to me in this book that Maria moved from mamma to mamma really fast. Hitty had quite a few owners but it took much longer. There were long periods of time that Hitty was lost or stored away so maybe that's why it seemed to take much longer. It would be interesting to compare the two books to see how many owners Maria had as opposed to Hitty.

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