By Any Other Name, by Jodi Picoult

 

Melina Green 2014 -  2027	Emilia Bassano 1581 - 1695
Professor Buford   Andre – best friend Letita – mother Darnell – father   Felix Dubonnet – artistic director, Village Fringe   Jasper Tolle – columnist, judged Melina’s play in college   Play “By Any Other Name” about ancestor, Emilia Bassano Producer – Jasper Tolle Assistant – Tyce D’Ono Director – Raffe Langudoc   Matthew  “Matty” - father  Beth - friend	Susan Bertie – Countess of Kent, Emilia’s guardian   Jeronimo – cousin in London, Jewish Alma – wife Edward – son   Baron Willoughby – Susan’s brother Isabella – Baron’s courtesan, Emilia sold to her in exchange for family help   Lord Henry Hunsdon – Emilia sold to him Edited plays for Queen Anne - wife Mary – head housemaid Bess – Emilia’s maid   Alphonso Lanier – Hunsdon paid him to marry Emilia, abusive Henry – son, not by Alphonso Odylllia – daughter, died at 10 months Bess – maid   Mary and Harry – Henry and Joyce’s children, raised by Emilia   Henry, Earl of Southampton – affair, Henry’s father   Christopher Marlowe “Kit” – became friends with Emilia (real)
	Other real characters
	Ben Jonson – playwright, in 1695 editing a folio of Shakespeare’s plays after his death “Arden of Faversham” – play, author unknown, possibly Marlowe, Shakespeare, or Thomas Kyd

 

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2025 paperback edition.

1.      The author drew parallels between Melina and Emilia’s artistic lives.  Did you see the parallels?  Did the author do this effectively for you?

2.      Did you like one woman’s part of the story better than the other?  Why?

3.      On page 214 Jasper said he had a photographic memory.  If this is true, why did he not remember Melina from ten years earlier?

4.      What did you think about Emilia continuing to practice Judaism? Did that add to the story?

5.      Did you read anything that struck you as a message the author wanted to share?  If so, what was it?  Was she successful?

6.      Did the inclusion of real English poets and playwrights from that time, such as Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe, add to your reading?

7.      Did you like how the play was interspersed between the chapters?

8.      When Emilia was watching the audience’s reaction to a play, she thought, “A playwright had taken a fresh, blank sheet of paper and from it, had made three thousand strangers feel” (page 95).  Have you ever read anything from any source that really resonated with you?

9.      Do you think there is the type of prejudice against female playwrights that the author described?

10. Emilia “believed words written by a woman about women might allow audiences to see them more fully, to realize that they had thoughts and dreams and worth” (page 198).  Do you agree?  Can women write from a male perspective, and can a man write from a woman’s perspective?

11. On page 219 Melina listed female authors who published as male – the Brontes, George Eliot, George Sand and J. K. Rowling, also as Robert Galbraith.  What did you think about this, particularly Rowling doing so very recently?

12. If you are familiar with Shakespeare’s work, did that enhance your reading?  Is that knowledge necessary to appreciate the book?

13. How satisfying did you find the ending?

14. Discuss your reading experience.  Did you like how the story switched between the two stories?