The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Chapters 25-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 25 Summary

Evelyn goes to France and meets director Max Girard. He offers her a part on the condition that she can be topless in the film. She accepts and offers another alternative: She’ll be topless, but the camera will pan slowly down and the scene will end right before it reaches her nipples. It works and Evelyn becomes an “international sensation” (160).

Chapter 26 Summary

Three articles come out within a month of each other: Singer Mick Riva proclaims he wants to marry Evelyn, Evelyn lands the titular role in Anna Karenina, and Don marries Evelyn’s former costar, Ruby, Evelyn is invited to Mick’s performance and takes Celia and Harry. She enjoys herself so much that she forgets who and where she is and holds Celia’s hand. A woman in the crowd sees. A few days later, speculations on the true nature of their relationship surface.

Chapter 27 Summary

To stop the rumors, Evelyn plans to go on a public date with Mick, but Celia resents the idea. Celia would rather come out, hoping the world will accept them, but Evelyn is adamant that they would be ostracized—or even arrested. Mostly, though, Evelyn is not ready to give up the stardom she just got back; Celia, though, would “give it all up” (170) to be with her. Eventually, Celia agrees to the plan.

Chapter 28 Summary

Evelyn tricks Mick into eloping with her by challenging him to go to Las Vegas. She pretends to be drunk and unable to resist him, emphasizing that she cannot have sex before marriage. After they’ve married, Evelyn endures sex with him. The next morning, when he tries to initiate again with her, she intentionally becomes unenthusiastic. She succeeds in making herself unappealing—Mick voices his regrets about the previous night and asks for an annulment. As he ducks out of the room, Evelyn performs rage and heartbreak, knowing he will tell the whole world about this encounter with Evelyn Hugo.

Chapter 29 Summary

Evelyn’s plan works and the tabloids stop reporting on her and Celia and begin talking about Evelyn’s most recent “failed” marriage. This buys the women some time, but when Evelyn realizes she’s pregnant, Celia is only just realizing that Evelyn slept with Mick. The discovery breaks her, and Celia packs her bags. Evelyn calls Harry and he takes her to Mexico for an abortion. He comforts and nurses her, even staying with her at her house for the next few days. Evelyn realizes that Harry is her family and, because of that, she’ll be okay.

Chapters 25-29 Analysis

Chapter 25 showcases the effects that Evelyn’s ostracization has upon her prospects and confidence. Having no opportunities in America, she is forced to seek out more obscure foreign films that are out of Sunset’s reach. In finding Max, she finds a humbling opportunity. Her conflicting feelings that the film is both beneath her and a big break reflect the contradictory nature of fame. This film also reinforces Evelyn’s strategic prowess; her ingenious idea to tease the audience rather than bare all speaks to her understanding of her viewership and her grit and determination. She singlehandedly reignites her career.

Chapters 26 and 27 demonstrate the lengths Celia and Evelyn must go to hide their relationship. Something as simple as enjoying a concert is dangerous for them because of stigma and prejudice. In Chapter 26, Evelyn’s worst fear is realized when she is spotted. The report that stems from them holding hands is deeply entrenched in anti-gay prejudice, again emphasizing how dangerous it was for Evelyn and Celia to love each other. Chapter 27, through their argument, articulates how different Evelyn and Celia are. They are foils; where Celia is idealistic, Evelyn is pessimistic. They see the world differently, and this dissimilarity results in failure to communicate. The argument reveals something detrimental to their relationship: Celia would trade her success for love, but Evelyn would do anything to have it all.

Evelyn’s plan to elope with Mick in Chapter 28 is an extended metaphor for The Cost of Fame. The point of view shifts from first person to second person to make the chapter even more personal, but the shift also indicates Evelyn’s desire to separate herself from the event. She remembers her elopement as happening to a body that is not hers, indicating the degradation and humiliation she felt in having to sleep with a man to protect her reputation. The chapter also critiques The Oversexualization and Commodification of Women’s Bodies through Mick’s disappointment and boredom with Evelyn after he’s slept with her. Evelyn cleverly manipulates this trait in Mick, but his view of her speaks to a more general misogyny—that women are more alluring when they seem unattainable.

Chapter 29 circles back to the issues revealed in Celia and Evelyn’s relationship through their tumultuous breakup. Their failure to communicate is represented by one major miscommunication; Evelyn’s belief that her sleeping with Mick was implicated by the plan is at odds with Celia’s understanding that the plan was exhaustively discussed. Their difference in views and beliefs is also represented by how they view their predicament: Evelyn sees her act as a sacrifice, and Celia sees it as cheating. Their argument, though, is less about Evelyn’s betrayal and more about how they each want to live their lives.