52 pages • 1 hour read
Rosamunde PilcherThe Shell Seekers
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Social Context: Upper-Class Bohemians in England
Pilcher describes the social class of Penelope’s parents as upper-class bohemian. Bohemians, by definition, are people who practice unconventional lifestyles. These social circles often include people with artistic backgrounds, such as artists, musicians, and writers. Penelope’s father, Lawrence Stern, lives a bohemian lifestyle as an artist who spends time in France and England before World War I and never ties himself down to a committed relationship until Sophie becomes pregnant with Penelope. After his marriage to Sophie, Lawrence continues to live a bohemian lifestyle by practicing his profession as an artist, often traveling between London and Porthkerris and visiting other locations throughout France. Penelope is raised in this fashion, and her mother-in-law’s first impression of her as a bohemian is largely based on the fact that she arrives at the hotel for lunch without wearing stockings or gloves as a proper woman would have been expected to do at the time.
Because of Penelope’s bohemian lifestyle as a child, she is a free spirit who is criticized not only by her mother-in-law but also by her daughter, Nancy, who begins the novel by looking down on her mother’s decision to live in the basement of her large house on Oakley Street in London, viewing it as unconventional and improper. Nancy is more conventional, like her grandmother, likely because her Stern grandparents died when she was a toddler and she never got to know them. Penelope’s husband, Ambrose, and his family were more traditionally focused on their social reputation, and this more conventional set of values rubbed off on Nancy and Noel. This fundamental difference in philosophy results in a great deal of friction between them and their mother. However, the bohemian lifestyle was born in Lawrence Stern’s profession, and his art becomes a bone of contention between Nancy, Noel, and Penelope when Nancy and Noel become aware of the financial benefits that they might reap if Penelope sells her father’s beloved work.
Social Context: 1980s and the Yuppies
The novel is set in 1984: a time before cell phones and the internet. The 1980s was the decade of the yuppies. In a sharp contrast to the bohemian lifestyle, the yuppies were a class of young urban professionals who focused on careers and ambition. (Although the term later came to be used pejoratively by many writers, when the term “yuppie” was first coined in 1980, it had a neutral connotation.) Olivia is an example of this yuppie movement, for she is a young woman who makes the conscious choice to focus on her career instead of marrying and having children. Compared to her more traditional older sister, Nancy, Olivia is independent and free to live her life the way she wants. Nancy, on the other hand, is controlled by her own perceptions of society’s opinion of her. Consequently, she forces her children to attend expensive private schools and lives in a home that she cannot afford to heat. Nancy’s lifestyle makes her desperate for money and acceptance, but it also traps her in an unhappy marriage and unsatisfying relationships with her children. By contrast, Olivia is unbothered by what people think of her; however, her sense of self-worth is dependent on her achievements within her career. Noel’s approach to life contrast with both of his sisters’ lifestyles He is a young man who wants to appear wealthy and successful, but he is unwilling to put the necessary work into his career and is instead constantly searching for the next get-rich-quick scheme.
Within the context of these conflicting social and economic paradigms, Penelope and her children find themselves at odds quite often based on the mismatched expectations they have of each other. Nancy and Noel feel as though their mother’s values do not align with their own and that she doesn’t prioritize their needs enough, while Olivia is secure in her independence and doesn’t rely on her mother for anything. These expectations result from different childhood experiences. Penelope not only grew up in the bohemian lifestyle that came with her parents’ somewhat nomadic life but also lived through World War II and experienced both great love and great loss. Nancy, Noel, and Olivia never experienced a war or loss. Instead, they were given everything they needed and were raised with the influence of a grandmother who disapproved of their mother and taught them to expect to receive things without a struggle. For example, their grandmother provides Nancy with the wedding of her dreams and gives Noel an unearned position in the family publishing business. Thus, the family members are divided by their own differing life philosophies, for they are each a product of the historical time frame in which they were raised. The resulting tension in their relationships drives much of the plot of the novel.
