Cloud Atlas

by

David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
29TH—VI—1931—A letter from a man named Robert Frobisher (R.F.) addresses Rufus Sixsmith and comes from “Château Zedelghem, Neerbeke, West Vlaanderen” (in Belgium). The letter is the first in a series. In the letter, Robert describes a dream about being in a china shop and smashing things to make beautiful music. He wakes in his suite at his hotel to find a debt collector pounding rudely on his door. Robert escapes the collector by climbing out his window and down a drainpipe. He laments that he is a former Caius College (at Cambridge) music student forced to the brink of bankruptcy.
The date on Robert’s letter reveals that a lot of time has passed and that Adam would be long dead regardless of what happened with his brain parasite. In fact, the beginning of this chapter is so different from the previous chapter, that it isn’t even clear at first if the stories take place in the same continuity. Whereas the previous chapter imitated the journal genre, this chapter imitates a genre called the epistolary novel, where a whole novel is composed of letters by the characters.
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Robert weighs his options. He could beg for enough money from his uncle to rent a shabby room somewhere and teach music to amateurs for a living, but he hates this idea. Alternatively, he could try to find some Caius people to live with, but he’d have to hide the fact that he’s broke. Finally, he could try to find a turf accountant (a person who takes bets), but that comes with the danger of losing. Robert knows he’s the only one responsible for his problems, but he asks Rufus to bear with him and keep reading.
Robert’s thought process reveals that he comes from a wealthy background. His education at Cambridge combined with his distaste for working with amateurs both suggest that he is most comfortable among the upper class. Nevertheless, it’s clear that his circumstances have changed and he can no longer rely on the wealth that he once had.
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Robert’s plan is to find an old and blind but esteemed British composer named Vyvyan Ayrs, who lives in seclusion in Belgium and hasn’t put out any new work in a long time. But a review of a recent performance of an old work mentions that Vyvyan Ayrs has a whole drawer of unfinished works. Robert hopes to find the famous composer and become his amanuensis (assistant who transcribes work for an artist), then his protégé, ultimately becoming famous enough to make his father put him back in his will.
Robert struggles to live up to his father’s expectations, and a similar conflict plays out for some of the characters in later stories. Although Robert needs money, his even deeper goal seems to be recognition and respect, suggesting that he doesn’t quite fit into the same mold as the many other profit-driven and greedy characters in the story.
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Robert tells about his trip to Belgium, complaining about all the poor accommodations along the way. In Belgium, things aren’t much better, although he manages to find a police sergeant who tells him where Vyvyan Ayrs lives and allows him to borrow a bicycle from the lost-and-found. Robert rides his bike to the Château Zedelghem, where Ayrs lives.
Robert struggles to adjust to his new lifestyle after his father disinherits him. He has gotten used to luxurious accommodations, and so he doesn’t know how to live within his new means.
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When Robert makes it to Ayrs’s place, he finds that Ayrs looks very old and very surprised to see him. Robert explains that he was a student at Caius College and wishes to be Ayr’s amanuensis. Ayrs thinks Robert is crazy. He asks if Robert was his teacher’s favorite, and Robert replies that actually, his teacher hated him. Ayrs is intrigued. He decides to test Robert the next morning. Ayrs skips dinner that night, and Robert eats with Ayrs’s wife, Jocasta van Outryve de Crommelynck, and his daughter, 17-year-old Eva.
Robert appeals to Ayrs by bringing up Cambridge, showing how important prestige and credentials are in his profession. But it also seems that Ayrs is a bit of a contrarian, and so he and Robert bond over the fact that Robert didn’t fit in with his Cambridge classmates.
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6TH—VII—1931Robert scolds Rufus for sending him a telegram, since telegrams attract attention (specifically from debt collectors). He then continues his story about Ayrs, describing his audition for Ayrs as a mixed success. Robert plays several famous pieces while Ayrs heckles him. To Robert’s surprise, however, at the end of the session, Ayrs admits that Robert might have potential, but he’ll need time to think over taking him on as his amanuensis. Ayrs leaves. Robert dislikes needing Ayrs’s help so much.
Rufus’s letters (and telegrams) don’t appear in the novel, but Robert’s references to them make it clear that the book only depicts one side of the conversation. Robert’s early interactions with Ayrs reveal him to be a temperamental and mysterious man. He appears to dislike Robert on the surface, but his actions seem to reveal that he respects Robert more than he lets on.
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Quotes
While Ayrs remains distant, Robert hears from Jocasta that despite Ayrs’s cold exterior, he seems interested in Robert—it’s just that he doesn’t like handing out praise. Additionally, he hasn’t composed for many years. Then, one day at breakfast, Ayrs approaches Robert and says he’d like for him to attempt to transcribe a viola melody. Robert is delighted at first, since he expected a smaller task to start, but then instead of playing viola, Ayrs just shouts some nonsense syllables at Robert. Robert can’t follow and asks Ayrs to repeat or explain himself several times. At the end, Ayrs complains to a servant in earshot of Robert that Robert is helpless at transcription.
Jocasta helps interpret the confusing moods of her husband. It seems Ayrs is someone who struggles to be open about his feelings—or perhaps he suffers from professional jealousy and insecurity after his long period without releasing any new works. During his first transcription with Robert, Ayrs’s motivations become even more opaque, and Robert wonders for the first time whether Ayrs is really still a genius or whether he’s too far past his prime.
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In the postscript to his letter, Robert asks Rufus for a loan. He says he can’t ask anyone else because otherwise news would get around.
Money problems continue to plague Robert, adding urgency to his business with Ayrs.
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14TH—VII—1931—Rufus sends Robert some money, which Robert thanks him for in his next letter. That day, Ayrs comes and apologizes to Robert for treating him poorly. He asks Robert to stay for a few weeks or perhaps even a few months and accept a salary. Robert enthusiastically agrees. Ayrs sends Jocasta to fetch a bottle of wine.
Ayrs seems to change his moods frequently. His earlier success has given him a sense of entitlement, and he expects others to bend to his whims, even though Ayrs doesn’t seem to be the influential figure that he once was.  
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Robert and Ayrs develop a work routine. Although Ayrs remains difficult, Robert learns to anticipate what he wants and even gets to make a suggestion or two. They work in the morning, then Ayrs naps in the afternoon while Robert works on his own material. Later, they have supper, and afterward, they listen to the radio or a gramophone. Sometimes friends come to visit, although Ayrs has few relatives.
By spending time with Ayrs, Robert learns that the great composer lives a lonely lifestyle. The isolation of Ayrs’s personal life contrasts with his widespread fame, suggesting how a person’s public image doesn’t necessarily reflect who they are as a person.
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After a while, Robert begins to learn his way around the Château Zedelghem. At dinners, Eva complains about how long Robert is staying with them. As he looks around his room at the château, Robert finds a book that seems to be the travel journal of a man named Adam Ewing. The journal, which seems to have been published posthumously by Ewing’s son, starts on the 99th page and ends mid-sentence about 40 pages later. He asks Rufus if he can track down the rest of Adam’s journal, then he sends Sixsmith a list of the oldest books in the Zedelghem library in order to have them appraised.
This passage offers an important clue about the larger structure of Cloud Atlas. The title of the first chapter is “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing,” and so it seems that Robert is reading the very text that appears in the first chapter of the novel. (The fact that Robert says the journal ends mid-sentence, also like Chapter 1, confirms this.) This also suggests that perhaps Robert’s story will have its own connections to later stories.
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28TH—VII—1931Robert completes his first collaboration with Ayrs. It’s a brief tone poem, but Robert considers it among his best work. He feels that he’s now the “golden boy” for the first time in a long time. Jocasta offers Robert a bigger room, to the annoyance of Eva. Robert begins to fear that Jocasta is subtly flirting with him. She gives him gifts and makes ambiguous statements about his body. One night at dinner, Ayrs pulls out a pistol and says he can still shoot even though he’s blind. Robert wonders if this is a threat.
As Robert gets closer to Ayrs and his family, he feels proud of accomplishing his goal, but he also realizes the dangers of spending so much time in isolation with them. It’s impossible for Robert to keep his personal life separate from his work life, and this creates tension with the other members of the family, like Eva (who seems annoyed by Robert) and Jocasta (who seems to be flirting with Robert).
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29TH—VIII—1931Robert references a letter from his father’s “solicitor” that Rufus sent him, saying he found it boring. He says he will leave Zedelghem to go into town and meet the solicitor to sign documents. Meanwhile, at the château, Robert has begun to feel uneasy ever since he started “servicing” Jocasta every few nights whenever Eva isn’t home. Even more than Ayrs, Robert fears the servant, Hendrick, who remains a mystery to Robert.
Robert uses euphemistic language, perhaps in case his letter gets intercepted, but it’s pretty clear what he’s referring to. The “solicitor” is actually a bookseller that Rufus knows who wants to look at Ayrs’s rare books, and the “servicing” of Jocasta refers to sex.
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Robert goes into town to meet the “solicitor,” but it’s actually the bookseller that he and Rufus have been communicating with, and Robert has brought along some valuable books. After confirming there are no creditors lurking around, Robert allows the bookseller to inspect the books. After some haggling, Robert walks away with a lot of money.
Despite Robert’s relatively good relationship with Ayrs, he has no trouble stealing some books from his house and selling them for a profit. This small betrayal, combined with Robert’s affair with Jocasta, suggest a growing conflict between Robert and his mentor.
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Robert enjoys spending his money on various things like spats and a cigarette box, as well as some beer in a café. As he’s walking around killing time before meeting back up with Ayrs, he happens to run into Eva, who is with a man twice her age who’s wearing a wedding ring. Robert marvels at how bold they’re both being. Later, back at Zedelghem, Robert confronts Eva about what he saw. She asks if he told anyone else yet, and he says no. Eva informs him that the older man is Monsieur van de Velde, and that she stays with his family during the school week. He was with her because the school doesn’t like the girls to walk around unaccompanied. Eva asks what Robert thought van de Velde was going to do to her, and if he was jealous. Robert is shocked and stammers an apology. He’s glad Eva will be leaving soon for Switzerland.
Although Robert desperately needs money, he still can’t resist spending what he has on extravagant things. Up until this point in the story, Robert and Eva have mostly stayed away from each other, but as Robert gets more involved with Ayrs’s work, he finds himself drawn even deeper into Ayrs’s family. This passage reflects the strict gender roles that existed in many parts of Europe at the time, where young women of a certain social class couldn’t walk around in public without a chaperone to escort them.
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29TH—VIII—1931—One evening, when Robert has Jocasta in his bedroom, Ayrs comes knocking and demands to be let in. Robert fears Ayrs is about to shoot him, but it turns out Ayrs is eager to record a violin melody before he loses it. Robert is so relieved that he doesn’t even mind being asked to work in the middle of the night. Hendrick is standing by to help Ayrs get around, and Robert wonders again how much Hendrick knows about him and Jocasta.
As Robert spends more time with Ayrs, he gets bolder about how he deceives him, and this brings Robert dangerously close to getting caught. Due to his own wealthy upbringing, Robert is used to ignoring servants like Hendrick, but his own status as an assistant to Ayrs perhaps prompts him to give greater attention to people like Hendrick.
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Ayrs hums his violin sonata. Robert tells him it’s strange, unlike anything that Ayrs—or anybody else, really—has done before. Ayrs says he dreamt the music came from a nightmarish café. After transcribing the melody, Robert calls Hendrick to take Ayrs back to bed. To Robert’s horror, however, after he gets back in bed with Jocasta under his sheets, the blind Ayrs stumbles into his room to see him and sits on the bed, not far from where Jocasta is under the sheets.
The nightmare café that Ayrs describes has a vaguely futuristic feel to it, and it strongly resembles the setting of a later story in the novel. This passage captures the mysterious nature of inspiration and how, with one of his best melodies, Ayrs seems to have a vision of a future world.
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Quotes
Ayrs says he’ll be direct: He’s heard rumors that Jocasta is unfaithful, and he wants to know if she’s made advances on Robert. Robert denies everything. Ayrs asks why a smart, rich, good-looking young man like Robert is still hanging around in Zedelghem. Robert says Ayrs is his muse, like the older poet Verlaine was to the younger poet Rimbaud. Eventually Ayrs leaves. After he’s gone, Jocasta gets angry with Robert. When he asks why, she says that Ayrs loves Robert.
Verlaine and Rimbaud were French poets who had a short but passionate romance. While other parts of the story hint at a homoerotic subtext to the relationship between Ayrs and Robert, this passage makes that tension more explicit. Given that homosexuality was still illegal in many parts of Europe at this time and that Ayrs is already married, it makes sense that he would hide his feelings.
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Later, Robert reports that all of Zedelghem seems to be stirring, with even the plumbing making a lot of noise. He reflects on Ayrs’s desire to make immortal music and finds it vulgar and vain, likening it to ancient cave painting.
The noise that Robert hears at Zedelghem reflects the turmoil that he himself feels in his own head.
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14TH—IX—1931—Sir Edward Elgar, one of the most famous English musicians other than Ayrs, stops by for a visit one day. Like Ayrs, Elgar is also old and in declining health. They talk for a while; Elgar mentions that, after a long break, he’s working on a new symphony. The two of them eventually fall asleep, and Robert listens to their snores as if he’s notating them. Three days later, Ayrs announces he wants to complete one last big symphonic work called Eternal Recurrence, based on the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. He wants to keep Robert on for another six months in exchange for a continued salary.
Elgar is a real composer who is most famous for composing the Pomp and Circumstance Marches (which readers may recognize as the music that accompanies graduation processions). The 19th-century philosopher Nietzsche’s concept of “eternal recurrence” (also sometimes translated as “eternal return”) is the idea that time repeats itself and that the same events will happen again and again. (Note that the concept originated in ancient Greek philosophy—Nietzsche revived and expanded on the idea.) Eternal recurrence ties directly to the themes and structure of Cloud Atlas, where elements of some chapters come back again in other chapters.
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28TH—IX—1931Jocasta begins to irritate Robert, asking about other women he’s been with. She’s fascinated by the birthmark on Robert, which looks like a comet. She even tells Robert she loves him. He tells her he’s never loved anyone but himself. She gets angry and leaves. Robert has agreed to Ayrs’s proposal to stay for another six months. Later that day, he transcribes a piece based on the sound of burning leaves. Robert doesn’t even remember when it became fall.
The comet birthmark is perhaps the most important image in the book. Comets follow an elliptical orbit, and so a comet ties in directly to the concept of eternal recurrence in the previous letter. Although this chapter doesn’t end as abruptly as the previous one, it nevertheless leaves several crucial elements of the story unresolved.
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