118 pages • 3 hours read
Anthony DoerrA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 0, Chapters 1-8
Part 1, Chapters 9-31
Part 2, Chapters 32-36
Part 3, Chapters 37-61
Part 4, Chapters 62-67
Part 5, Chapters 68-95
Part 6, Chapters 96-100
Part 7, Chapters 101-120
Part 8, Chapters 121-128
Part 9, Chapters 129-147
Part 10, Chapters 148-165
Part 11, Chapters 166-167
Part 12, Chapters 168-177
Part 13, Chapter 178
Character Analysis
Symbols & Motifs
Themes
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Quiz
Tools
Saint Malo is a walled city on the coast of Brittany, France, on the English Channel. The city’s history dates back to antiquity, and its high walls were first constructed in the 4th century CE, when the city was part of the Roman Empire, as protection against raiders crossing the channel from lands beyond the empire’s frontier. From the early middle ages into the 19th century, Saint-Malo was the home port of the corsairs—French privateers who had state permission to conduct raids on any ships belonging to states at war with France. The line between the corsairs’ legalized plundering and outright piracy was often quite blurry, and corsairs frequently became pirates in times of peace. In this period, Saint-Malo developed a fiercely independent identity, reflected in the city’s motto: Ni Français, ni Breton, Malouin suis—“Neither French, nor Breton, I am Malouin.”
When France fell under German occupation during World War II, Saint-Malo’s ancient city walls made it attractive to the occupiers as a fortress—part of the “Atlantic Wall” program by which Germany intended to defend its captured European territory against invasions from the sea. Saint-Malo was the last German position on the European mainland to surrender to Allied forces. After the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944, Allied forces heavily bombarded Saint-Malo, and the US Army led a siege against the German-occupied city that led to its surrender on August 17.
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By Anthony Doerr