Chapter Two: Helen Brevoort's Childhood and the Path to Benjamin Rask

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

Summary

The chapter opens with the Brevoort family, old Albany aristocrats whose fortune has faded. Leopold Brevoort, a failed political philosopher, takes over his daughter Helen’s education at age five. He writes custom workbooks and teaches her science, literature, and languages. Their early years together are joyful, filled with walks along the Hudson and invented myths. When Leopold becomes absorbed in Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings, the lessons shift toward theology, mathematics, and dream interpretation. Helen, at seven or eight, solves algebraic problems and parses biblical passages, but she also begins to fabricate her dream journals to amuse herself and unsettle her father.

Around age nine, Helen develops insomnia and anxiety, and she notices her parents prefer her subdued, obedient persona. She adopts a quiet, unassuming character around them. The family’s financial situation worsens, and they take in lodgers, which drives away their social circle. The Brevoorts decide to travel to Europe. Mrs. Brevoort, Catherine, becomes a social connector among American expatriates, often securing invitations for the family. Leopold focuses on occult studies—spiritism, alchemy, mesmerism—and Helen sees her father becoming a hoarder of nonsense. Yet his respect for her talents leads him to arrange lessons with scholars across Europe.

During their travels, Mrs. Brevoort uses Helen’s memory and mental stunts as entertainment at parties, making Helen a sought-after attraction. Leopold discovers this and erupts in fury, accusing his wife of intellectual harlotry. The marriage deteriorates further. When World War I erupts, the family is in Switzerland. While Catherine works to secure passage home, Leopold’s mental state collapses into delirium. He is placed in a sanatorium at Bad Pfäfers. Helen never sees him again.

On the journey back to America, the Brevoorts befriend Sheldon Lloyd, a right-hand man to the financier Benjamin Rask. Catherine manipulates Sheldon into offering them passage and a place to stay in New York. She expertly grooms Sheldon as a potential suitor, while also learning about Rask’s wealth and reclusive habits. Sheldon, flattered, invites mother and daughter to a Red Cross gala at Rask’s mansion.

At the party, Helen slips away from the bustle and wanders into a quiet, tasteful part of the house. Benjamin Rask finds her there. In a strained but silent exchange, Helen realizes that her mother’s schemes have worked: Rask will propose if she allows it. Helen decides to accept, believing that in his vast solitude she will find her own freedom, finally escaping her parents’ control.

Key Events

Leopold Brevoort becomes Helen’s tutor and creates a personalized curriculum.
His immersion in Swedenborgianism changes the nature of their lessons.
Helen begins fabricating her dream journals to test her father.
At age nine, she develops chronic insomnia and adopts a passive persona.
The family travels through Europe as Catherine networks among expatriates.
Helen demonstrates her memory feats at her mother’s social engagements.
Leopold discovers the performances and has a violent argument with Catherine.
World War I traps the family in Switzerland; Leopold’s mental health collapses.
Helen bids farewell to her father as he is committed to a sanatorium.
The Brevoorts meet Sheldon Lloyd, who helps them return to America.
Catherine orchestrates an invitation to Benjamin Rask’s gala.
Helen and Benjamin share a quiet, wordless moment in a sitting room.
Helen resolves to marry Rask for the independence his solitude will offer.

Character Development

Helen Brevoort evolves from a bright, playful child into a watchful, reserved young woman. She learns early to perform roles—first as a dutiful student, then as a quiet daughter, and later as a social prodigy. Her internal life remains hidden, and she yearns for autonomy. By the chapter’s end, she actively decides to use marriage as a means to achieve freedom.

Leopold Brevoort begins as a loving, eccentric educator but descends into obsessive occultism and mental illness. His decline is marked by a loss of connection to his daughter and to reality.

Catherine Brevoort is a pragmatic social climber who uses charm and manipulation to sustain the family. She sacrifices Helen’s privacy for social gain but also provides the structure that eventually delivers Helen to wealth.

Sheldon Lloyd appears as a vain, self-absorbed intermediary. His egotism makes him easy for Catherine to manipulate.

Benjamin Rask is glimpsed only briefly—a man uncomfortable in his own home, isolated, and inarticulate in social settings. Helen recognizes his loneliness as a mirror of her own.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Education and Control. Leopold’s teaching starts as liberation but becomes a tool of surveillance. Helen’s dream journals are demanded in the name of honesty but are actually a means for her father to study her mind.

Performance and Persona. Helen performs quietness for her parents and later performs memory feats for her mother’s guests. The self she presents is a strategy for survival.

Solitude and Freedom. Helen identifies Rask’s solitude as something she can share, imagining that a marriage built on mutual isolation will grant her independence.

Wealth as a Stage. The Rask mansion represents both the pinnacle of affluence and a realm of genuine taste (the quiet rooms) that contrasts with Sheldon’s garish party decorations.

War as Equalizer. The outbreak of WWI briefly reduces wealthy Americans to the same precarious state the Brevoorts had long endured, normalizing their struggle.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter provides the essential backstory for Helen Brevoort (soon to be Helen Rask), revealing the forces that shaped her character. It explains her reserve, her tactical passivity, and her willingness to marry for strategic reasons. It also introduces Benjamin Rask in person for the first time, setting up their marriage as the central relationship of the novel. The chapter deepens the novel’s critique of wealth, class, and the commodification of women.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Helen decide to accept Benjamin Rask’s likely proposal at the end of the chapter? Helen sees in Rask a profound loneliness that matches her own. She believes that marrying him will give her the freedom she has never had, because he will either ignore her or appreciate her companionship. She has concluded that independence is only possible within a marriage that offers space.

2. How does Helen’s childhood education under her father both empower and confine her? Leopold’s education is intellectually rich—she learns languages, science, and advanced mathematics—but it also becomes a form of surveillance. He requires dream journals and tracks her moral development. She learns to manipulate the system by fabricating dreams, but the experience teaches her to present a false self to authority.

3. What role does Mrs. Brevoort play in Helen’s eventual marriage to Rask? Catherine Brevoort is the architect. She engineers the friendship with Sheldon Lloyd, extracts information about Rask, secures the invitation to his gala, and then monopolizes Rask’s attention at dinner to make a favorable impression. Her calculated social maneuvering positions Helen as Rask’s future wife.