The Congo Peacock
Although Fitz’s grandfather and his expedition are fictional, the story of Chapin’s discovery of the Congo peacock is otherwise a true one. Chapin found a single feather early in the century, but the bird itself was not actually found until twenty years later, when he found two preserved specimens in a Belgian museum. This discovery led to the discovery by Chapin of the birds themselves—a find that caused something of a sensation in the world of ornithology.
—MD
Reader’s Group Guide
1. What stylistic differences separate the sections of the novel set in the 1700s and those set in the present?
2. Is this a particularly English story, or could the novel be just as naturally set in the United States? Why or why not?
3. Each major character in the novel experiences the intersection of discovery, science, and “the vagaries of chance” (19 CONCLUSIONS). Joseph Banks “came to realize later that discovery was not a science” (2 FRIDAY AT THE MECKLENBURG). Mary Burnett “did not expect to be noticed. Discovery is not a science; there is too much chance in it”(2 FRIDAY AT THE MECKLENBURG). And Fitz believes that “the discovery of most things comes down to luck. People often feel uncomfortable about that. They want discovery to be driven by something more meaningful than coincidence” (17 IN LONDON). Is the author using scientific discovery as a metaphor here? What various personal discoveries are made in the course of the story and how much do they depend on random chance?
4. How would you describe Joseph Banks’s character? Is his fury at Mary’s departure reasonable, despite the fact that the entire plot is his idea and she only leaves one day prior to the agreed-upon departure date? Does the following passage suggest that he never believed she would actually do it: “By running off ahead of him she had placed him in an impossible position, and as a result he had been forced to give up his greatest adventure. If he had sailed with Cook, he reasoned, all would be well. But her rashness had made it impossible. It was intolerable, and it was not of his making” (15 DISCOVERIES)? Why does the author include the section about Banks’s equanimity with “the smiling brown people of the southern seas” (7 IN THE MUSEUM)?
5. What does Potts hope to gain by sending the Martha Ainsby letter to Fitz? What simple trick makes the letter so misleading?
6. What does it reveal about Mary that “as she watched her father edging toward ruin, she was aware of her love for him like a sharpening pain. The more fallible he revealed himself to be, the more she loved him” (9 MYSTERIES) and “she watched him slowly breaking down, and the pain of her love for him grew sharper. She knew she would accept any suffering for his sake…”(9 MYSTERIES)? Is this brand of love naïve or generous? How does her love for Banks compare to her love for her father?
7. Is Banks in love with Mary? Or is he really in love with his work?
8. Fitz traces his grandfather’s notorious quest for an elusive African peacock as a story parallel to his own. What do the two tales have in common? How does Fitz find hope in his grandfather’s story despite its tragic underpinnings?
9. Fitz notes the irony inherent in our society’s neurotic recording of ephemera: “We live in a society that is strangely superstitious about written records. Even while we’re content to countenance the tearing down of rain forests and the destruction of countless unknown organisms every day, we hold on grimly to our documents and papers. Few of us are immune to this” (10 WORDS, PICTURES). Do you agree with his assessment? What benefits to nature, if any, does this ruthless recording offer?
10. After being ensconced at Richmond, why does Mary go out of her way to remind Joseph that she “is no longer what they call a maiden” (10 WORDS, PICTURES)?
11. What “unwonted clarity” accompanies Fitz’s anger after his bedroom is ransacked (11 IN LINCOLN)? What does he do with this revelation?
12. The mystery of Fitz’s personal tragedy and the mystery of Mary Burnett’s disappearance are each revealed to hinge on a child. How? Why, in each case, does the issue involving the child throw the romantic relationship off kilter? Did this bridge between the historical and the modern stories surprise you?
13. Can Fitz’s final hoax, designed to put Potts and Anderson out of their misery, be construed as ethical in any way?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people have helped me with the writing of this book. In particular I’d like to thank all those who have helped with comments, advice, and exhortations to take a break and come and have a drink; Professor Mark Seaward, for his wonderful knowledge of Lincolnshire lichens; Jo and Sam, for the Goat House; Jane, for her patience; my fellow toilers at the Café Rapallo; my parents, for the continual flow of cuttings, clippings, and comments about Sir Joseph Banks; Yranie, as always, for her critical eye and uncritical support; and Margaret Lovegrove, for her enthusiasm just when I needed it.
Perhaps most important of all, I should acknowledge the many scholars, past and present, in particular Averil Lysaght and James C. Greenway, without whose work this book would never have happened.
About the Author
MARTIN DAVIES, a senior producer at BBC Television, is the author of two mysteries featuring Sherlock Holmes’s housekeeper. He lives in London.
ALSO BY MARTIN DAVIES
Mrs. Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2005 by Martin Davies
Reader’s Group Guide copyright © 2006 by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
THREE RIVERS PRESS and the TUGBOAT design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Published in slightly different form in hardcover in the United States by Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2005.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davies, Martin, 1965–
The conjurer’s bird : a novel / Martin Davies.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743–1820—Fiction. 2. Wildlife conservationists—Fiction. 3. Extinct birds—Fiction. 4. Naturalists—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6104.A87C66 2005
813'.6—dc22 2005008728
eISBN: 978-0-307-34587-5
v3.0
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