Back to Book Overview

no chapter name

Chapter 14363 wordsCompleted

Circe narrates a vivid, sensory-rich monologue that intertwines her fascination with pigs and an elaborate cooking recipe. She catalogues pig anatomy—cheeks, tongue, ears, trotters, heart—detailing how each part is seasoned, boiled, basted, and served, often likening the pig’s faces to nymphs with varied personalities. The language drifts between culinary instruction and lyrical description, invoking the smell of swill at dusk, the moon as a lemon, and the sound of oinks. Mid‑monologue, Circe recalls a younger self standing on a shining shore, watching tall black ships sail, slipping off her dress to wade into the sea, and longing for men. She returns to the kitchen scene, urging the reader to baste the sizzling pig once more. No interactions with other characters occur; the chapter functions as a poetic soliloquy.

Running Summary
Cumulative summary through the selected chapter (not the full-book final summary).
Through chapter 14

Little Red-Cap meets a poetic, wine‑drinking wolf at the edge of the woods, follows him into his lair, loses her shoes, kills him with an axe, fills his belly with stones, discovers her grandmother’s bones, and escapes the forest alone with flowers. Three enigmatic queens gather at the palace gates, prophesy a new star and command a scar‑marked chief of staff to launch a ruthless eastward raid against every mother’s son. Mrs Midas recounts a night of chaotic intimacy with a gold‑obsessed lover, their volatile interactions in a domestic setting, and her eventual decision to leave him behind. Mrs Tiresias recounts a surreal tale of a man who returns home transformed into a woman, describing the gender swap, a menstrual curse, and a glamorous encounter with a lover at a glittering ball. Pilate’s Wife recounts watching the Nazarene enter Jerusalem, dreaming of his crucifixion, sending a warning, and later seeing him crowned with thorns and taken to the Place of Skulls; she doubts his divinity while Pilate is depicted washing his hands and believing he is God. Mrs Aesop confronts a pompous suitor, mocks his futile pursuits, and silences him with a brutal fable. Mrs Sisyphus is introduced, delivering a bitter monologue that likens her own loneliness to mythic figures while condemning Sisyphus’s endless toil with the stone. Mrs Faust recounts her marriage to Faust, their affluent nomadic lifestyle, Faust’s moral decline and demonic death, and her inheritance of his vast fortune after making a pact with Mephistopheles. Delilah encounters a scar‑wounded warrior, engages in a violent sexual encounter, then binds him to a door and cuts his hair. Queen Kong, a giant gorilla queen in Manhattan, obsessively pursues a small documentary filmmaker, lives with him for twelve years, then kills and preserves him as a necklace with emerald eyes. Mrs Quasimodo, a new narrator, resides in cathedral grounds, engages in a sexual relationship with a bellringer, and later murders the cathedral’s bells, silencing them forever. Medusa, a jealous narrator, reveals her transformation into a Gorgon with snake‑filled hair, her fear of betrayal by a perfect Greek god lover, and her vivid self‑portrait as a monster confronting his arrival with shield and sword. The Devil’s Wife narrates an abusive relationship with a man she calls the Devil, describing sexual assault, burial of a doll in the woods, quitting work, and eventual imprisonment; Medusa appears as a locked narrator reflecting on her captivity. Circe is introduced, delivering a poetic monologue about pigs, cooking rituals, and youthful memories of the sea.