Sinister Street · Chapter
XIII: Plashers Mead explained
Stella returns from Vienna and Michael senses a troubling change in her.
What happens
Stella returns from Vienna and Michael senses a troubling change in her. She is restless, bored with London, and evasive about her experiences abroad. A visit to their childhood home on Carlington Road reveals her bitterness. Michael worries about her vulnerability and suspects a romantic entanglement in Vienna. Stella abruptly returns to Vienna, then comes back again, listless and changed. Michael struggles to connect with her as she withdraws from her former self.
Themes in this chapter
The Passage of Time and Memory
The visit to Carlington Road highlights how childhood haunts are transformed by memory and present bitterness; Michael reflects on how people and places become beautiful again with time.
Love and Obsession
Stella's secretive behavior and emotional turmoil suggest a romantic entanglement in Vienna; Michael's anxiety about her vulnerability points to the consuming nature of passion.
Social Class and Identity
The contrast between the 'goblin-children' of the urban slums and the sedate comfort of Cheyne Walk underscores class divisions; Stella's Bohemian past clashes with her present restlessness.
Characters to notice
- Michael Fane
Observes Stella's transformation with anxiety; revisits Carlington Road with her; returns from Plashers Mead to find her back in London.
- Stella Cunningham
Returns from Vienna changed—restless, bitter, and secretive; mocks their childhood home; refuses to visit Maurice's studio; eventually breaks down in tears.
- Mrs. Fane
Shares Michael's worry about Stella; returns home to find Stella gentle with her; mentions Mrs. Carruthers and Mabel.
- Maurice Avery
Takes a studio in Grosvenor Road and invites Stella to visit, but she refuses.
- Clarissa Vine
Mentioned by Stella as having made a fool of herself over a man; part of Stella's old Bohemian circle.
- George Ayliffe
Mentioned as a former painter who became a 'promising realist'; part of Stella's old set.
Key passages
““Oh, don’t let’s talk of what happened nearly a year ago,” protested Stella. “You were very much excited by it at the time,” Michael pointed out. “Ah, but lots of things have happened since then.””
Stella dismisses the suicide of Prescott as old news, while Michael reminds her how affected she was; she implies her life in Vienna has been full of new events.
Reveals Stella's emotional distance from past tragedies and her immersion in new experiences.
““My god, to think we once lived here!” exclaimed Stella, as they stood outside Number 64. “To me it seems absolutely impossible, but then of course I was much more away from it than you ever were.””
Stella expresses disbelief that they once lived in Carlington Road, claiming she was always more detached from it than Michael.
Highlights Stella's bitterness and sense of alienation from her own past.
““Play?” she echoed. “I’m never going to play again.””
When Michael asks her to play piano, Stella declares she will never play again.
A dramatic statement signaling her emotional crisis and rejection of her former identity.