The Alps

A recurring location in many of Shelley's novels.

14. Passage through Switzerland (253)

Map of the Rhine River via EIA

During their travel to Italy, Ethel and Villiers follow the Rhine River into the Continent. This passage mimics Shelley's own journeys.

13. Following the Rhine (252)

Richmond Riverside

Eton College is a secondary school of high prestige in England, and from which multiple male characters of Lodore graduated. Eton the city is located near Windsor, and both are relatively near London. Both times Ethel visits Eton, she stays at Salt Hill. 

9. Ethel visits her Father's School (183)

Ethel tours Eton College with Villiers as her guide.

27. Return to Salt Hill (344-345)

Ethel stays at Salt Hill while Villiers tries to manage their finances in London.

The Illinois

4. Ethel's Childhood in Illinois

The place of Ethel's idyllic childhood. Lord Lodore settles them on the edge of settled American territories--where there was still much wilderness. Illinois became a state in 1818, which would place Lodore's arrival with Ethel roughly during the time that it was still governed as a territory.

 Henry A. Papprill, after John William Hill. New York from the Steeple of St. Paul’s Church, Looking East, South, and West. 1848.

New York functions as the arrival and departure point for America in Lodore.

3. Lord Lodore arrives with the three-year-old Ethel in America

London Street Scene, 1830

London, the captial of England/Great Britain, was the cultural and economic center of the empire. As a result, Ethels passes through it many times throughout the novel.

2. Lord Lodore passes through London with Ethel while on his way to America

Shelley places the ficitonal town of Longfield in Essex.

1. Ethel is born

"In the flattest and least agreeable part of the county of Essex, about five miles from the sea, is situated a village or small town, which may be known in these pages by the name of Longfield." (49)

7. Ethel arrives at Longfield with Elizabeth (168)