The Virgin Cure Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell and our BookBrowse Review of The Virgin Cure.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Miss Everett could be seen as doing work that "saves" girls, whether from poverty or from working the streets, and she is an established member of New York society. What do you think of this argument, considering the few options for young girls like Moth?
   


2. What makes Moth such a survivor? Is she better or worse off without her mother?
   


3. The young Moth spends a lot of time fantasizing about the lives of the wealthy and how her life could have been different. Do Moth's early experiences with the Wentworths dispel some of those fantasies, or shore them up?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Harper Perennial. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.