Frances and Bernard

by Carlene Bauer

What if . . . ?

Imagine replaying a possibility. Imagine getting the chance to find love in a moment that’s been lost.
What if you could take the relationship one step further? Would love bloom? Would the relationship
struggle? How honestly could you answer these questions?

Drawing on brief encounters between Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell, Carlene Bauer recreates
just this kind of romance and offers a fictional answer to the question, What if their relationship had
continued? Balancing between love’s passionate yearnings and religion’s cautionary advice, Bauer
crafts a fictional yet pragmatic love affair between two of the greatest literary icons of the twentieth
century.

Questions

1. Authors often quote other authors to create a touchstone that hooks the reader. Bauer quotes
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: “So, I have written you a love letter, oh, my
God, what have I done!” What questions does this quotation cause you to ask? What have you
ever done that would spark a similar reaction?
2. In an interview conducted by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Bauer explained why she chose to
write Frances and Bernard in an epistolary format: “After a draft using the third person
omniscient, I had the realization that if I wrote the novel in letters, the book would consist of
two very strong voices in a struggle and you would feel the struggle more keenly, I hope,
because of the intimacy of the form.” Do you agree with Bauer’s rationale? Are letters more
personal? Explain.
3. While the novel transitions between Frances and Bernard’s letters, the author also develops
other characters. What do these other letters allow Bauer to create? How would the story have
been different if Bauer had provided only the letters between Frances and Bernard?
4. Bauer’s catalyst for this book was a “What if . . . ?” notion. Robert Lowell (Bernard) did meet
Flannery O’Connor (Frances) at a writing conference; however, Bauer’s novel is fictional
except for a few fleeting moments. Bauer has said she “borrowed quite a bit of their
temperaments and views.” Knowing that these two authors actually met, does the extrapolation
of their love story seem more real and plausible? Explain. How much truth did Bauer weave
into the letters? Research the life of Lowell and O’Connor. Are there other moments in their
lives that add verisimilitude to the fictional account?
5. After Francis and Bernard meet at a writers’ colony, they each tell a friend about their
impression of the other. What do you think of Frances’s impression of Bernard? What is
Bernard’s first impression of Frances? What do these first impressions foreshadow? How
important are first impressions? Explain.
6. Bernard’s first letter to Frances is short, but he does ask one profound question: “Who is the
Holy Spirit to you?” If you had to pick a topic to discuss with someone you would like to know
better, what topic would you choose? Why?
7. If this situation had occurred today instead of in the 1950s, how might the novel have been
different? The same? What significant developments would alter the pace and mood?
8. In one of his early letters Bernard writes, “In January a man crawls into a cave of hopelessness;
he hallucinates sympathies catching fire. Letters are glaciers, null frigates, trapping us where
we are in the moment, unable to carry us on toward truth.” What do you think of Bernard’s
thought? What paradox is created? How would technology today change this perspective?
9. Bernard and Frances begin an exchange comparing the literature they read as children. What
do these titles reveal about them? Compare their lists with what you read as a child. How are
the lists different? Why?
10. After seven and a half months, Bernard closes his letter with “Love (may I), Bernard.” Is his
declaration made too soon? How long does it take Frances to express her love? What do the
timing and format of the declarations say about each character?
11. “I can’t even teach! I had to, when I was at Iowa, but I was not very good at hiding my
displeasure at mental sleepiness and mediocrity” (39). Compare past and present ideas about
education, students, and learning. How has education changed? Are students better prepared
today? Are students more or less interested in learning? Explain.
12. After a visit to Frances, Bernard writes a short letter with this final line: “Please do not ever
disappear from me” (47). What do you think of Bernard’s plea? Is it sincere? Desperate?
Explain.
13. Bernard writes, “I can’t stand mysteries. In the same way I can’t stand science fiction. Why
pretend we’re somewhere else? Forensics is a feint. Why distract ourselves from the eternal
questions with set dressing? Salad dressing” (86). Do you agree with Bernard’s assessment of
these types of literature? What type of literature do you think is most rewarding? Why?
14. Bernard tells Francis, “Your face says so much in so little time, you let everything you’re
thinking bloom upon your face, and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather watch than you
pass through five moods in five minutes. What glorious weather” (87). Would you take these
comments as a compliment or an insult? Explain.
15. Claire tells Frances she is the “last stanza of Keat’s ode—Cold Pastoral—when you should be
lolling around at the first—Wild Ecstasy” (121). Read “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by Keats. What
do you think of Claire’s comparison? What is she telling Frances about love? Do you agree?
Explain.
16. Why does Frances doubt Bernard’s love for her? Is it something about Frances? Is she correct
to be wary about Bernard’s love? Explain.
17. How is the theme of unrequited love relevant to the lives of Frances and Bernard? Are there
other stories of unrequited love you could compare to Frances and Bernard? How are they
similar? Different?
18. Perhaps nothing is more tragic than a love filled with regret. How is love like this for Frances?
For Bernard? Is their inability to finally love each other just a matter of timing, or do you think
they were never destined to be together? Explain.
19. Almost two years after ending their relationship, Frances sees Bernard again. What changes
about Frances during this meeting? How is Bernard still the same?
20. Most stories move forward by relying on the conventions of plot, setting, dialogue, characters,
etc. How does the author create movement in this story?
21. In The Habit of Being, Flannery O’Connor writes: “When you leave a man alone with his Bible
and the Holy Ghost inspires him, he's going to be a Catholic one way or another, even though
he knows nothing about the visible church. His kind of Christianity may not be socially
desirable, but will be real in the sight of God.” How does this quotation apply to Bernard?
Frances? Does it present a compromise about religion for both characters? Explain.
22. Robert Lowell, in Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and
Robert Lowell, states: “But asking you is the might-have-been for me, the one towering
change, the other life that might have been had.” Does this quotation express hope or despair?
Is it truly better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Explain. Or is it better to
have the dreams and the “what if” moments?
23. In a review of Frances and Bernard for the Washington Post, Teresa Link comments:
“Towards the end of her story, however, Frances reflects, ‘If I were a different kind of writer I
would find a way to channel this into a novel.’ Bauer would do well to ponder those words in
her heart so that in her next effort she can leave the dead in peace and create characters from
her own clay.” Do you agree with Link? Do you like how Bauer created this novel? Explain.