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.
Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Richard”
In 1943, Penelope and Doris are struggling to run their household and are forced to find creative solutions to provide their children with meals and clothing. Lawrence has grown frail since the loss of Sophie, revealing his advanced age. They learn that the Royal Marines plan to take over the football field to train to train some United States Rangers to climb the Boscarben Cliffs. One afternoon, Penelope walks with Lawrence to the gallery—called simply the Art Gallery—that he founded years before. At the gallery, a man in uniform enters and introduces himself as Major Richard Lomax. He confesses to being a fan of Lawrence’s. By August, the Rangers have arrived and the whole area is buzzing with excitement. One morning, Richard happens upon Penelope in town, and they talk. Penelope tells Richard about Ambrose and Nancy and invites him to dinner. At dinner, Richard and Lawrence become fast friends. Richard becomes a regular at the Sterns and becomes close not only to Lawrence but to the whole household. As the weeks pass, Richard comes to Carn Cottage often. One afternoon, he and Penelope walk out to Lawrence’s art studio. While there, Richard confesses his love for Penelope. She admits to loving him as well, and they become intimate.
In the spring, Penelope and Richard go away together for a week. On the last day of their trip, Richard tells Penelope that he must leave. His training with the United States Rangers is over and he is being reassigned. In a letter a few months later, Richard tells Penelope that when the war is over, he plans to help her sue for divorce from Ambrose. Richard wants to marry Penelope and raise Nancy as his own. In June, a few days after the Allied Forces invade Normandy, Penelope learns that Richard was killed after volunteering to go with the Second United States Rangers to Normandy. Heartbroken, Penelope recommits herself to her marriage with Ambrose.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Doris”
Back in the present day, Penelope gets a call from Roy Brookner informing her that the American buyer has offered to 100,000 pounds for the panels. Penelope agrees to the purchase and asks Roy to arrange for The Shell Seekers to be donated to the gallery in Porthkerris. Penelope asks Danus and Antonia to travel with her to Porthkerris, and they agree. Penelope writes a letter to Olivia explaining these things to her. A few days before Easter, Nancy calls her mother to invite her to Easter dinner and is surprised to find that Penelope isn’t home. Nancy calls Olivia in a fit, worried about her mother, only to learn about the trip to Porthkerris. Nancy is hurt because her mother took strangers on this trip rather than taking her own daughter. She is especially upset to learn that Penelope is staying at a hotel rather than in Doris’s home. Her anger is compounded when she learns about the money Penelope earned from the sale of the panels. Nancy calls Noel and shares the news with him.
Penelope, Antonia, and Danus spend several days sightseeing in Porthkerris, visiting many of the places where Penelope grew up. One morning, Penelope buys flowers and walks to Doris’s home. Doris married Ernie Penberth not long after Lawrence Stern died, and they continue to be happily married. Doris and Penelope haven’t seen each other in many years, but they fall easily into the same comfortable bond they shared before. At the hotel, Penelope calls Olivia on Easter. They have a pleasant conversation about Penelope’s trip. Penelope tries to call Noel, but he doesn’t answer the phone. Penelope calls Nancy, and the conversation is stilted because Nancy is upset. Penelope finally asks what is wrong, and Nancy dumps her emotions on Penelope, accusing her of loving Olivia more, of being the reason why Ambrose left the family, and of never giving anything to her children. Penelope politely hangs up on Nancy. She refuses to be upset by Nancy, but the words still hurt. Antonia comes upstairs, worried that Penelope has not come down to dinner. Antonia confesses that she wants to tell Danus how she feels about him, and Penelope encourages her to do so. Penelope gives Antonia the gold-and-pearl earrings she inherited from her aunt Ethel, encouraging her to wear them to dinner with Danus.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Danus”
Penelope wakes refreshed and immediately writes to Olivia to inform her of the gift she made to Antonia. She goes down to breakfast alone, then walks to the gallery to see The Shell Seekers in its new home. She sits on the same couch where she and her father used to sit often, and it is there that Danus finds her. Danus tells her that he is going home to Scotland. He explains that he doesn’t drink or drive because he was diagnosed with epilepsy in America. His mother wanted him to be retested by doctors in Scotland, but in order to do so, he had to stop his medication and refrain from drinking and driving for a specific length of time. That time is now up, and he needs to return home for testing. Danus insists that he must do this now because he cares for Antonia, and he doesn’t want to marry her if he is ill. Penelope agrees and wishes him luck.
Chapters 11-13 Analysis
The introduction of Penelope’s secret romance with Richard Lomax illustrates the theme of Experiences of Great Love and Great Loss, while also filling in a few holes in Penelope’s early life that explain the motivations for some of her actions later in life. From the gentle, organic way in which this relationship develops, it is clear that Richard is the kind of man whose personality would have complemented Penelope’s kind, honest nature. He shares her love of great literature and art, and he generously develops a good relationship with Lawrence. Compared with Ambrose, Richard is clearly a more ideal romantic lead: the kind of hero most heroines fall head over heels for. Despite their mutual attraction, Penelope’s decision to have an affair with Richard is a complex one. While it might appear selfish on the surface, is also a moment of weakness to which any person in a time of such great peril and uncertainty might succumb. War has drastic effects on people’s perspectives and choices, and the immediacy of the war and the intensity of Richard’s love allows Penelope to realize that she might have the chance to experience true happiness. Losing him is devastating, as his death dashes her hopes for creating a better life for herself, and ultimately, Penelope conforms to the attitudes of her time by choosing to stay with Ambrose despite the poor quality of her marriage.
Back in the present day, Penelope is not unlike her children in that she is overwhelmed with excitement when she learns how much money she will earn from the sale of her father’s paintings. However, rather than acquiescing to her oldest children’s selfish desires, she fittingly decides to spend the money freely on her own trip to Porthkerris, treating herself in a way she would not have been able to do without that money. Penelope happily shares this trip with Antonia and Danus, the only two who will agree to go with her, and thus the narrative implies that one’s truest family members in life are not necessarily blood relatives, but rather the people with which it is most enjoyable to spend time. With the sale of the paintings, Penelope fully embraces living life to the fullest rather than hanging on to physical objects that can no longer do her any good. Thus, she is determined to spend her time and her money however she pleases, in true bohemian fashion, despite the opinions of her children.
Penelope’s choice to give The Shell Seekers to the gallery that her father started years ago on Porthkerris connects to her love of the history of her home, Podmore’s Thatch. It is clear from Penelope’s actions that honoring her legacy is important to her. By giving The Shell Seekers to the gallery, she commemorates her father’s act of starting the gallery and also returns the painting to the very place it depicts and the place in which it was first created. It also allows fans of her father’s works to see a painting that has never before been displayed and has never been sold. In this way, Penelope ensures that her father, and by extension her whole family, will continue to be a part of the art community in Porthkerris where she knew so much love and happiness.
Penelope’s trip to Porthkerris is important because it is her chance to say goodbye. Accordingly, she visits places that she once visited with her parents and tells Antonia and Danus many stories that her own children were uninterested in hearing. In a sharp contrast to these positive experiences and moments of bonding with Antonia and Danus, Penelope must endure a barrage of difficult and upsetting phone conversations with her own children. While her conversation with Olivia is cordial and reflects their healthy relationship, Penelope’s interactions with Nancy and Noel demonstrate the full force of her oldest children’s many character flaws. Nancy’s anger at being excluded from the Porthkerris trip is particularly ironic given her reluctance to accompany Penelope when she had the opportunity to do so, and her outrage over the sale of Lawrence’s panels makes it clear that her primary concern is in obtaining her mother’s wealth rather than in developing a positive relationship with Penelope herself. Nancy’s many resentments demonstrate her selfishness, as do her words to her mother when she accuses Penelope of never giving her anything. This accusation rings particularly false, given the narrative’s previous revelations of how Penelope sold her family’s beloved cottage to pay for her children’s educations years ago. The tension between the reality of Penelope’s actions and the distortions of her daughter’s perceptions creates a passage that drips with both sadness and irony, and ultimately, Penelope has no choice but to leave Nancy alone with her anger.
