51 pages • 1 hour read
The Stolen Queen
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Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Charlotte, New York City, 1978”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and gender discrimination.
The novel begins in New York City in 1978; Charlotte Cross works as an associate curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (often known as “the Met”). Despite her expertise and long tenure in her role, she has not advanced and often feels frustrated with her boss, Frederick. Charlotte’s career has stalled partially because she refuses to return to Egypt after a mysterious visit decades earlier.
Secretly, Charlotte has been researching an ancient Egyptian queen named Hathorkare. Hathorkare began ruling as regent when her young stepson, Saukemet II, became pharaoh (king of Egypt) as a child; she eventually began ruling as pharaoh in her own right because, at the time, women could not rule. Eventually, Saukemet seized the throne; according to most historians, he destroyed most of the images of his stepmother as an act of revenge. However, Charlotte has a theory that the destruction occurred much later and, therefore, had a different motivation. Charlotte’s research has the potential “to turn a long-held assumption upside down, revive the name and reputation of Hathorkare, and make a major contribution to the study of ancient Egyptian history” (7).
Charlotte is astonished when Frederick shows her a new piece that the Met has just received on loan: a gold, collar-style necklace from ancient Egypt. It has been loaned anonymously, but Charlotte immediately recognizes the necklace and is desperate to learn more about the donor. The necklace is connected to her past, and she explains that she was present when the necklace was first found, decades earlier.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Charlotte, Egypt, 1936”
The narrative flashes back more than 40 years. In this period, Charlotte is an 18-year-old undergraduate student who has joined a team of researchers conducting excavations in ancient Egypt. Charlotte has been passionate about ancient Egypt since she was a child, but her parents aren’t supportive of her ambitions: “[T]his trip was a lark, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, in their minds. She was only a girl, after all” (20). Charlotte gets to know Henry Smith, a young British man who is part of the research team, and she notes that Henry is humbler and kinder than many of the other arrogant researchers who surround her. A romantic relationship begins to develop between Henry and Charlotte. Meanwhile, Charlotte impresses the lead archaeologist, who agrees to allow her to participate in a dig. During the dig, Charlotte uncovers the door to a previously undiscovered tomb.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Annie, New York City, 1978”
Annie Jenkins is a 19-year-old woman who lives with her mother, Joyce, in a cramped New York City apartment. Annie and Joyce often have a tense relationship since Joyce clings to dreams of being a model or marrying a wealthy man, and Annie often must take on a role of responsibility within the parent-child dynamic. To support herself and her mother financially, Annie works as a waitress and a cleaner. By chance, one evening, Annie’s neighbor Mrs. Hollingsworth asks her to deliver a feather boa to the Met. The errand confuses Annie, but she sets off anyway.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Charlotte, New York City, 1978”
After the surprise of seeing the collar necklace, Charlotte meets with Frederick to outline her theory about Hathorkare. She explains that the erasures of Hathorkare’s image likely occurred about 20 years later than the conventional dating. Charlotte also explains what she believes is the motivation behind Saukemet II eliminating most images of his stepmother. Charlotte suspects that Saukemet’s son and heir faced a rival, a female claimant to the throne. Fearful that Egyptians would seriously consider the possibility of a woman becoming queen, Saukemet II wanted to remove images of a woman who had previously ruled successfully and therefore ordered the erasure of Hathorkare’s images. This theory is important because, as Charlotte summarizes, “if [she’s] right […] it means that Hathorkare was not universally reviled, as we’ve long thought” (45). Frederick tells Charlotte that she can’t publish this theory until she has more conclusive evidence of her claims. He tells her that she’d need to go to Egypt to do fieldwork and find more evidence, but due to an unspecified traumatic event, Charlotte finds the idea of returning to Egypt impossible to consider.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Charlotte, Egypt, 1936”
Back in 1936 Egypt, the team of researchers enters the tomb that Charlotte has uncovered. Two mummified corpses are inside. One is within a sarcophagus, but the other has had its sarcophagus stolen and has been left lying on the floor. The uncovered corpse may be royal, and Charlotte wonders if this could be the tomb of Hathorkare and her nurse. Although most of the treasure has already been looted from the tomb, Charlotte finds an elaborate gold, collar-style necklace. The necklace is engraved with the name of Hathorkare, but the lead archaeologist cautions that this does not necessarily mean that the tomb belongs to her. Because of the conditions that the Egyptian government has imposed on foreign archaeologists and researchers, half of what is found must remain in local Egyptian museums. Charlotte is frustrated to learn that the gold collar necklace will remain at the Egyptian museum. Shortly after, Charlotte and Henry begin a sexual relationship, and Charlotte unexpectedly becomes pregnant.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Annie, New York City, 1978”
Annie delivers the package to the Met; she realizes that the package is for Diana Vreeland, a high-profile fashion editor who organizes the annual Met Gala. After chatting with some of the staff and seeing Diana, Annie becomes fascinated by the behind-the-scenes workings in preparation for the Gala.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Charlotte, New York City, 1978”
After her conversation with Frederick, Charlotte goes to the home that she shares with her longtime partner, Mark. Mark’s teenage daughter, Lori, is currently staying with them. When Charlotte finds a ring in Mark’s pocket and surmises that he is planning to propose, she is uneasy and tells him that she prefers the status quo in their relationship. Mark agrees but also complains, “Charlotte, sometimes I have no idea what you’re thinking and it scares me” (73).
The next day, Charlotte discusses these events with her best friend, Helen, who also works at the Met. She tells Helen that Frederick has suggested that she go to Egypt for further research. Helen knows that Charlotte believes that due to the curse associated with Hathorkare’s tomb, terrible events will befall her if she ever returns to Egypt. On two occasions in the past, Charlotte has tried to travel to Egypt: One time, her mother unexpectedly died and prevented the trip, and the second, a plane crashed just before her flight was scheduled to depart. Charlotte sees these events as evidence of the curse and believes that she should never attempt to return to Egypt.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Charlotte, Egypt, 1937”
After learning of Charlotte’s pregnancy in 1937, she and Henry quickly get married in Egypt. They plan to depart for the US shortly since Henry has been offered a job at the Met. Charlotte still dreams of becoming an archaeologist but wonders how she will balance these ambitions with her new life as a wife and mother. Charlotte is surprised when she accidentally finds out that Henry was offered another job working as an overseer for a Polish archaeology team. Taking this job would mean that they could stay in Egypt rather than returning to the US. Charlotte persuades Henry to accept this job; this opportunity is better for his career in the long term, she feels comfortable having the baby in Egypt, and she dreads her parents’ reaction to her unconventional life choices. A few months later, Charlotte gives birth to a daughter named Layla.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
The Stolen Queen is a work of historical fiction that unfolds at two distinct points in time: One storyline traces events during Charlotte’s sojourn in Egypt in the 1930s, while the other is set in 1978. The alternating storylines (and alternating points of view, with some chapters focused on Charlotte and others on Annie) create suspense and dramatic tension. Particularly in the early portion of the novel, readers are limited in how much information they have about Charlotte’s past and must wait for the earlier narrative to catch up and reveal facts to them. This structure reflects Charlotte’s secrecy and repression of emotions at the start of the novel: She can’t cope with her immense loss, and she hides it from everyone. Likewise, the narrative only gradually reveals the tragic events of Charlotte’s early life, heightening the dramatic tension.
Like many historical novelists, Davis combines historical facts and figures with fictional characters. Hathorkare is closely modeled after the historical Egyptian royal woman Hatshepsut, but Davis utilizes a different name. Diana Vreeland is a historical figure (she lived from 1903 to 1989 and worked as a consultant to the Costume Institute at the Met), but Charlotte and Annie are both fictional. The Cerulean Queen statue is based on an actual artifact that the Met owned: a statue known as the Fragment of a Queen’s Face. However, the Fragment of a Queen’s Face dates to a period significantly later than the time when Hatshepsut lived and possibly depicts Nefertiti, another famous Egyptian queen. Davis chooses to present the fragmented statue in her novel as a representation of Hathorkare. This choice works with the plot, creating a more cohesive mystery when the statue eventually vanishes, and introduces the theme of Negative Responses to Women’s Ambition. There is no evidence that the Fragment of a Queen’s Face statue was deliberately damaged, and ancient artifacts are often damaged as centuries pass. Since, in the world of the novel, the Cerulean Queen statue is presented as an image of Hathorkare, it is possible that it was intentionally damaged during the campaign to efface the female pharaoh from memory. As Charlotte muses, “[D]id someone take a hammer to it on orders from Saukemet II?” (8). The possibility that a statue depicting a powerful woman was purposefully damaged becomes symbolic of how Hathorkare has been vilified and misrepresented. The fragmented nature of the statue, which has been broken but still endures, also establishes the theme of Resilience in the Face of Personal Loss.
Charlotte is driven to complete and publish her research project less out of intellectual curiosity and more so because it hurts her to see an ambitious woman be slandered by predominantly male scholars and curators who are uncomfortable with evidence of a woman’s power and success. Since Charlotte defied social norms by traveling to Egypt, pursuing her ambitions, and then conceiving a child out of wedlock, she feels a sense of kinship and connection with Hathorkare as a fellow woman who played by her own rules. Indeed, Charlotte’s interest in ancient Egypt draws on her fantasies of it as an era when women may have enjoyed greater freedom and autonomy than they do in the 1930s. Facing a constricted vision of her future, Charlotte “wishe[s] she’d been born in ancient Egypt, when women and men had many of the same rights under the law” (20). Although this fantasy overlooks the challenges that women then faced, it nevertheless reflects the negative responses to women’s ambition that Charlotte faces in her work environment.
The discussion of the Cerulean Queen and other artifacts introduces moral questions about history, art, and colonialism into the text early on. For centuries, antiquities were routinely removed from their locations of origin and taken to other countries, bound for either museums or private collectors. Large and prestigious museums such as the Met and the British Museum often ended up owning priceless artifacts associated with other cultures, such as ancient Greece and ancient Egypt; these were also often obtained under dubious premises. For example, in the 20th and 21st centuries, there has been significant debate about some famous antiquities such as the Elgin Marbles (ancient Greek sculptures held by the British Museum) and the Benin Bronzes (later mentioned in the novel). Initially, Davis depicts the Met and similar spaces in a positive light in the novel: They are places where artifacts like the Cerulean Queen statue can be preserved and made available for the public to view. Annie, unlike Charlotte, is not affluent or well educated, but she can access the Met and learn about art and history as a result. This plotline reveals the value that museums offer as democratic places and sites of public learning.
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