to blood: In the Bible, a blood-red moon is often a sign of the coming apocalypse; see the Bible, Joel 2:30-31; Acts 2:19-21; and Revelation 6:11-13.

Chapter 5: Paul Launches into Life

1 (p. 98) Disability Fund: The Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 mandated that workers injured on the job receive compensation.

2 (p. 104) Charles I: The king of England and Scotland from 1625 to 1649, Charles I was beheaded for many alleged intrigues and disloyalties during his reign.

3 (p. 109) Castle on its bluff of brown, green-bushed rock: The medieval castle in Nottingham, built by the Normans and nearly dismantled by 1660, stands on bedrock riddled by caves and tunnels.

4 (p. 122) “You remind me of Elaine in the ‘Idylls of the King”: In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Lancelot and Elaine, part of his ten-book “Idylls” poem cycle (1859), Elaine loves the knight Lancelot “with that love which was her doom.” She dies from the immensity of her love and, by her request, her body is placed in a boat and set on the river to float toward Camelot. The legend inspired the Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse to paint the scene in 1888.

5 (p.125) an Arabian Nights: In The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories originally in Arabic and commonly known as The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade entertains her husband, Schahriah, with tales in order to delay her execution.

Chapter 6: Death in the Family

1 (p. 140) The Lady of the Lake: In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King,” the Lady of the Lake is an obscure, supernatural figure who steals Lancelot in infancy and raises him in her impenetrable castle in the middle of a lake. King Arthur grasps his magical sword Excalibur from her hand rising from the water. “The Lady of the Lake” is also a long narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott (1810) that tells of the varied fortunes of the suitors of Ellen Douglas, a young woman who lives with her father by Loch Katrine.

2 (p. 142) Whitsuntide: This English and Christian holiday on the seventh Sunday after Easter celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles on Pentecost.

3 (p. 144) a little thing of Annie Swan’s: The best-selling Scottish author Annie Swan (1859-1943) was sentimental, easy to read, and moralistic. She departed from her usual style to write under the names Mrs. Burnett Smith and David Lyall.

4 (p. 147) Goose Fair: An annual Nottingham event that dates from the sixteenth century and may have originated as early as the thirteenth century, the Goose Fair is held in early October. The fair has always attracted vendors, sideshows, and circus-like amusements and provided ten days of merriment until 1876, when it was restricted to only three or four days in the interest of civic peace, law, and order.

5 (p. 149) erysipelas: A patient who contracted this inflammatory skin disease, usually through an open wound, was in danger of blood poisoning, pneumonia, and rheumatic fever. Before the widespread use of antibiotics, erysipelas was often fatal.

6 (p. 153) Oh, my son—my son: This is a reference to the Bible, 2 Samuel 18:33, where David mourns the death of his son Absalom. Paul Morel echoes the cry later in the book, “Oh, my love—my love.”

Chapter 7: Lad-and-Girl Love

1 (p. 159) a Walter Scott heroine: Scottish poet and novelist (1771-1832) Sir Walter Scott wrote in the Romantic period and specialized in complicated plots involving aristocratic lovers and Scottish peasants; see also note 1 in chapter 6.

2 (p. 159) Ediths, and Lucys ... Guy Mannerings: All are characters from the novels of Sir Walter Scott (see note above). Edith is from The Lord of the Isles (1815), Lucy Ashton from The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), Rowenas and Brian de Bois Guilbert from Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy from Rob Roy (1817), and Guy Mannering from Guy Mannering (1815).

3 (p. 160) “Colomba,” or the “Voyage autour de ma Chambre”: French novelist Prosper Mérimée published the novel Colomba in 1841. (He also wrote Carmen, which was later turned into an opera by Georges Bizet.) Voyage autor de ma chambre is a novel by Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852).

4 (p.162) Skegness: D. H. Lawrence spent a month at Skegness, a resort town on the east coast of England, recuperating from his first attack of pneumonia in the winter of 1901-1902.

5 (p. 162) King Cophetua’s beggar-maid: According to legend, the African King Cophetua was impervious to love until he saw a beggar maid. He fell instantly under her charm and asked her to be his