Chapter 22 Summary: May 1913 — Key Events, Themes, and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

The chapter opens in May 1913 with Esme's father collapsing at home—one side of his face gives way and he loses the power of speech. Esme kisses him and promises to follow shortly with his pyjamas and the book beside his bed, but by the time she reaches the Radcliffe Infirmary, he is already dead. The single word gone strikes her as wholly inadequate for the scale of the loss.

In the days before the funeral, Esme stays with Lizzie, who has Gareth haul a mattress up to her room. Lizzie takes on the practical work of gathering Esme's belongings from the family house, and Esme's imagination follows her through the empty rooms—collecting post, washing dishes, checking locks, climbing the stairs—until the imagined sight of Lizzie searching her wardrobe for a black dress brings on weeping. Esme thinks of the yellow roses she placed beside Da's bed and wishes they could stay, slightly wilting, forever.

A letter from Ditte arrives on 5 May. She promises to arrive in Oxford within two days and to lead Esme away from the well-wishers on a walk along Castle Mill Stream to Walton Bridge—the spot where Harry proposed to Lily. Ditte's letter also passes on Harry's last words about Gareth: that Lily would have liked him very much.

True to her word, Ditte leads Esme and Gareth out of the garden, past the Scriptorium, and along the towpath. There she reveals a private ritual: Harry walked this route every Sunday afternoon to discuss the week with Lily. It was less a conversation than a meditation—he would arrive at the bridge with his head full of concerns and consider them from Lily's perspective. Esme learns she was the main topic of those walks, but that Harry also consulted Lily on small domestic decisions, from what to wear to whether to buy lamb or beef for Sunday lunch. The story reshapes Esme's memories, adding colour to her picture of Lily, who had always felt absent.

At the bridge they find a bunch of flowers laid beside the arch—not fresh, but not entirely expired. Ditte recognises them as offerings for Lily and reveals, with tears, that Harry had been leaving flowers there since Lily's funeral. Esme catches the scent of rush daffodil, Lily's favourite, though Da had never liked them.

Returning to work at the Scriptorium, Esme finds Da's chair empty. Mr. Sweatman tucks it in; Mr. Maling looks toward it with questions on his tongue; Dr. Murray visibly ages and makes no move to find a new assistant. Esme hates the empty space and avoids looking at it. Grief crowds out everything else. She walks with Gareth when the weather allows, and hawthorn marks the passing months—berries ripening, leaves falling. She takes his friendship for granted, needing it to fill the void, and doesn't notice when he tries to take her arm.

At Christmas, Esme's aunt insists she visit Scotland, but Esme instead travels to Bath, where Ditte and Beth offer good humour, pragmatism, and Madeira cake. She returns to Oxford feeling lighter. On 3 January 1914, she walks into the Scriptorium to find a new lexicographer, Mr. Rawlings, sitting in Da's old seat. He is unremarkable and unaware of who sat there before him—and it is an enormous relief to everyone.

Key Events

Da collapses at home and dies at the Radcliffe Infirmary before Esme can reach him
Esme stays with Lizzie until the funeral; Gareth brings a mattress to Lizzie's room
Ditte arrives and leads Esme and Gareth along Castle Mill Stream to Walton Bridge
Ditte reveals Harry's Sunday ritual of consulting Lily's perspective at the bridge
The group discovers decaying flowers Harry had left for Lily—a ritual continued since her funeral
Esme returns to the Scriptorium, where Da's chair remains conspicuously empty
Months of grief pass, marked by hawthorn and walks with Gareth
Esme spends Christmas in Bath with Ditte and Beth instead of with relatives in Scotland
On 3 January 1914, Mr. Rawlings takes Da's old seat at the sorting table

Character Development

Esme moves through the first raw stages of grief in this chapter. Her initial numbness gives way to a grief that crowds everything else, and she struggles to re-enter the Scriptorium where her father's absence is most visible. Ditte's story about Harry's walks with Lily is described as a gift—it subtly revises her memories and makes Lily feel present for the first time. By the chapter's end, the Bath visit has left her lighter, and the arrival of Mr. Rawlings brings relief rather than resentment.

Gareth emerges as a steady, patient presence. He takes Esme's hand for the first time at the bridge, sits close enough to feel her trembling, and walks with her through the months of mourning. Esme's failure to notice his attempt to take her arm suggests she is not yet ready to receive his affection, but his constancy is evident.

Ditte acts as a keeper of family memory. Her letter and her walk with Esme reveal a side of Harry that Esme never knew—his private meditations with Lily. She delivers the news about Harry's blessing of Gareth with tenderness, and her practical care (along with Beth's) provides the comfort that Scotland relatives could not.

Dr. Murray is visibly diminished by Da's death. He ages in the weeks and months after, stares along the sorting table, and makes no effort to replace his assistant—a quiet testament to Da's value.

Mr. Rawlings is introduced as deliberately unremarkable. His obliviousness to the chair's history is precisely what makes his arrival bearable; the space is filled without ceremony or sentiment.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Rituals of remembrance. Harry's Sunday walks to Walton Bridge, his flowers for Lily, and the decaying bouquet found at the bridge all show how grief expresses itself through repeated, private acts. Ditte's revelation transforms these rituals from unknown habits into shared memory.

Flowers as symbols. Yellow roses mark Da's final hours; rush daffodils—Lily's favourite, which Da disliked—carry the scent of Esme's mother into the present. The decaying flowers at the bridge embody love that persists beyond death, and Esme's wish that the roses stay, slightly wilting, forever captures the desire to hold onto loss itself.

The empty chair. Da's vacant seat at the sorting table becomes the focal point of the Scriptorium's grief. Mr. Sweatman tucks it in, Mr. Maling looks toward it, Dr. Murray stares along the table. The chair is finally filled by Mr. Rawlings, whose ordinariness makes the transition bearable.

Time and healing. The hawthorn marks the months between May 1913 and January 1914—berries ripening, leaves falling. The chapter charts a slow movement from acute grief to something lighter, without pretending the loss has been resolved.

Memory as revision. Ditte's story touches up Esme's memories like a painter adding a daub of colour. Lily, always absent, suddenly becomes present. The chapter suggests that grief is not only about loss but about the stories we inherit and revise.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is the chapter in which Esme's father dies, and it anchors the novel's emotional arc. It reveals the private life Harry kept from his daughter—his weekly meditations with Lily, his flowers, his blessing of Gareth—and in doing so, it deepens Esme's understanding of both her parents. The chapter also marks a turning point in Esme's relationship with Gareth, whose hand-holding at the bridge signals a shift she is not yet ready to acknowledge. Finally, the arrival of Mr. Rawlings in January 1914 closes one era of the Scriptorium and opens another, reminding us that the dictionary's work continues even as the people who build it pass away.

Study Questions

1. Why does Ditte choose to reveal Harry's Sunday walks to Esme at Walton Bridge, and what effect does the revelation have on Esme's understanding of her father?

Ditte brings Esme to the exact spot where Harry proposed to Lily and where he walked every Sunday to meditate on his concerns from Lily's perspective. The revelation shows Esme a father she never knew—one who maintained a private dialogue with her mother for years. The effect is transformative: Esme's memories are touched up like a painting, and Lily, who had always felt absent, suddenly becomes present. The story also carries Harry's blessing of Gareth, delivered through Ditte's letter, which adds a layer of paternal approval to Esme's relationship.

2. What does the empty chair at the sorting table represent, and why is Mr. Rawlings's arrival described as an enormous relief?

The empty chair is a daily reminder of Da's absence, and the Scriptorium's workers respond to it in small ways—Mr. Sweatman tucking it in, Mr. Maling looking toward it, Dr. Murray staring along the table without seeking a replacement. The chair keeps grief alive in a space meant for work. Mr. Rawlings's arrival fills the vacancy without ceremony; he is unremarkable and unaware of the chair's history, which is precisely why his presence is a relief. The dictionary can move forward without the weight of memory pressing on every glance.

3. How does the chapter use flowers to connect Esme's grief for her father with her mother's memory?

Flowers appear at three key moments: the yellow roses Esme places beside Da's bed, the rush daffodils whose scent she catches at the bridge, and the decaying bouquet left for Lily. The roses mark the moment of Da's departure; the daffodils—Lily's favourite, which Da disliked—link Esme's mother to the place where Harry communed with her; and the decaying flowers prove that Harry's devotion to Lily continued until his death. Together, they suggest that grief is not a single event but a lifelong practice of remembrance, and that Esme's loss of Da is intertwined with the mother she never knew.