The Girl Before

“The upper floor is reached by the most crazily minimalist staircase I’ve ever seen. It’s like something hewn into a cliff face: floating steps of open, unpolished stone, with no handrail or visible means of support.” 

Jane describes the staircase when she sees it for the first time on her tour of One Folgate Street. Although Jane describes the staircase with a positive tone in this quote, she’ll soon learn that Emma died by falling down these stairs. Her note that there is no handrail “or visible means of support” foreshadows Simon’s death on the stairs.

“It’s like an upmarket prison cell, Simon comments.” 

Simon’s early comment on One Folgate Street’s capacity to feel like a “prison cell” hints at the eventual way that both Emma and Jane will feel trapped by the house. The aspects of the house that are “upmarket,” including the stairs and technological features, end up being the very things that make each woman feel unsafe later on.

“I leave the box for the answer completely blank. As blank and empty and perfect as the interior of One Folgate Street.” 

Emma struggles for a while to determine what the right answer to the question about essential possessions in her life is, and then comes up with this answer. Her choice to leave the box “completely blank” reflects other imagery in the text of a blank slate as an opportunity to start anew. Emma’s desire to get a fresh start is also mirrored in Jane’s desire to move on after her stillbirth. 

“My baby died. My baby died and then, three days later, she was born. Even now, it’s the unnatural wrongness of it, the horror of that casual inversion of the proper order of things, that hurts almost more than anything.” 

Jane emphasizes the “unnatural” process of giving birth to a dead baby as one of the most challenging aspects of her grief. As she moves into One Folgate Street, she feels that she can get closer to “the proper order of things.”

“And as I drift off to sleep another word floats into my brain as well. A rebirth.” 

Jane feels that she can have a “rebirth” at One Folgate Street, where the space will allow her to move through her grief into a new life. She physically experiences an actual second birth later in the novel, proving that One Folgate Street can foster positive change in a person’s life.  

“Never apologize for someone you love, he says quietly.” 

In an early conflict with Edward, Simon apologizes when Emma spills coffee on some architectural drawings. Edward shows both his controlled demeanor and charm by chastising Simon. While watching the interaction, Emma feels surprised. Later in the novel, she comments on discovering that she’s really attracted to alpha men like Edward, in contrast to men she sees as weak, like Simon.

“My buildings make demands of people, Jane. I believe they’re not intolerable, and in any case, the rewards are far greater than the demands.” 

Edward explains to Jane that he’s interested in designing architecture that makes “demands of people,” and that he’s not interested in hearing criticism that these demands are “intolerable.” At the end of the novel, Edward tells Jane that he believes she has received the “rewards” that he describes here as a result of her being willing to meet the demands of One Folgate Street.

“Emma, I will love you forever. Sleep well, my darling.”

When Jane discovers this note left with the lilies on the doorstep of One Folgate Street, she doesn’t know who they’re from. Eventually, she figures out that it was Simon who left the note, although she doesn’t know yet that he is the one who killed Emma. Simon’s behavior in leaving this note demonstrates his continued attempts to control both Emma’s life and death as well as trying to control the narrative around his relationship with her. 

“[Simon] gestures at the floor, the beautiful stone walls, the dramatic double-height void. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? Because I’m not good enough for you. Because our old flat wasn’t good enough.” 

As Simon and Emma’s relationship continues to erode, Simon challenges Emma’s desire to live at One Folgate Street and her constant desire to get something that is “good enough” for her. While Emma protests these kinds of comments at first, eventually she decides that she’s interested in something different and better. Shortly after this accusation, she begins thinking more seriously about breaking up with Simon.

“There’s a kind of purity to a relationship unencumbered by convention, a sense of simplicity and freedom.” 

Edward’s repeated claim that a no-strings-attached, short-lived relationship has a “kind of purity” reflects the other ways he sets up his life to achieve some kind of perfection. In repeating this statement to both Emma and Jane, Edward gives the impression that he’s continuing to try to find the perfect relationship through these women.

“Just thinking about leaving Simon gives me a strange feeling, like vertigo. Is it the break-in that’s done this? Is it talking to Carol? Or is it One Folgate Street itself, those powerful empty spaces in which, suddenly, everything seems so much clearer?” 

In one of the only moments that Emma feels truly reflective in One Folgate Street, she describes the sense that things are “much clearer.” As she contemplates leaving Simon, it’s important that she feels something “like vertigo,” because this foreshadows her eventual fall from the height of the stairs at One Folgate Street, which happens because of Simon’s anger that Emma has left him.

“I would never hurt you. Not deliberately. I can’t help loving you, Em. and I will win you back. You’ll see.” 

Simon’s belief that he would never hurt Emma, as the novel later reveals, doesn’t actually align with his behavior. His obsession over winning her back causes him to begin escalating his violence and aggression. Simon’s feeling that if he hurt Emma it wouldn’t be deliberate shows his lack of awareness around his own feelings and actions.

“I was raped. I hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that. I just want him to understand that this means something to me, that he’s special.” 

Emma adds on to her lies by telling Edward that she was raped. Although the novel hasn’t revealed that Emma is lying yet, this quote demonstrates her manipulative thinking underneath her deceptive behaviors. She tells Edward that she was raped so that he can “understand” how “special” she thinks he is.

“It was the culture: the emphasis on self-discipline and restraint. In our society, austerity is associated with deprivation and poverty. In Japan, they consider it the highest form of beauty—what they call shibui.” 

Edward’s strong preference for “austerity” is present throughout the book, from the appearance of One Folgate Street to the different interactions that Jane and Emma have with him. He believes that through “self-discipline and restraint,” a person can become a better version of themselves. 

“But I see now that our future lies not in building beautiful havens for the ugliness in society, but in building a different kind of society.” 

Edward says this as part of a larger speech at an architectural awards ceremony. As a result of the speech, which departs from traditional architecture philosophies, Edward receives an offer to design an entire town modeled on One Folgate Street. His belief in the possibility of architecture to build “a different kind of society” permeates his behaviors in the novel.

“Listen to me, Jane. Emma was a fascinating person […] but she’s in the past now. What’s happening right now, with us—this is perfect. We don’t need to talk about her again.”

On several occasions, Edward describes his relationship with either Emma or Jane as “perfect,” and seems to feel that achieving that momentary perfection is worth casting aside any other relationships or possessions. In this particular instance, he tells Jane that he doesn’t want to “talk about” Emma because he’s engaged in the perfection of being with Jane.

“I wonder what would happen if I could make him lose control, what revelations or hidden truths lie beyond this rigid self-restraint. One day, I decide, I’ll find out.” 

Emma’s manipulative patterns are explained more as she begins trying to plan to make Edward “lose control.” As she figures out ways to understand what lies “beyond” the self-restraint Edward shows, Emma begins altering her own behavior in order to get a reaction from Edward. 

“Sometimes I have a sense that this house—our relationship in it, with it, with each other—is like a palimpsest or a pentimento.” 

Jane begins reflecting on the ways that her relationship with Edward and with One Folgate Street seems to be a “palimpsest or a pentimento,” a piece of art or writing that has several layers, with older parts scratched out or erased to make way for new writing or imagery. This layering effect is very similar to the overall structure of the novel, which builds the lives of both women over one another.

“You get into patterns of thought, patterns that emerge when you least expect them. Stay that way for too long and you carry those patterns for the rest of your life.” 

In one of Emma’s final reflective narratives, she describes learning about anorexia from a psychologist, who taught her that the disease changes the way you think in patterned ways. These patterns are still present in Emma’s thinking and behavior, and this is one of the first times that she acknowledges that.

“Last time we met, we talked about repetition compulsion—the way some people get stuck in the past, acting out the same psychodrama again and again. But we’re also given opportunities to break out of those cycles, and move on […] the only truly clean slate is a new one.” 

Carol Younson explains this idea to Jane during a session in which they discuss Emma’s behaviors and lies. Carol’s description of a “truly clean slate” mirrors other moments in the novel that reference the idea of having a clean slate or fresh start. Jane is both excited and nervous about the idea about breaking out of whatever cycles she has been in.

“Being good at not eating is the proof I’m still powerful.” 

As her life collapses around her, Emma finds herself starting to use her control over not eating as a way to feel “powerful.” This disordered thinking shows that she has not been able to adapt or change as a result of One Folgate Street; instead, she falls back into her old, dysfunctional thinking patterns. 

“You can make your surroundings as polished and empty as you like. But it doesn’t matter if you’re still messed up inside.”

In Emma’s letter to Edward, she concludes that One Folgate Street couldn’t have fixed her because inside, she’s still “messed up.” It’s possible to argue that this awareness marks a sharp contrast between her previous self-awareness and her current state of reflection. 

“Second thoughts, self-doubts, moral qualms—in the ordinary world, they would have paralyzed me. But in those stark, uncompromising spaces, my resolve only grew and grew. One Folgate Street colluded in my plans, and all my decisions had the clean simplicity of loss.”

Jane’s conclusion that she was able to grow her resolve in the “stark, uncompromising” physical space of One Folgate Street demonstrates her strength and resilience. She describes the ways that the space allowed her to leave behind concerns that the “ordinary world” would have used to paralyze her. Jane’s emphasis on the “clean simplicity of loss” relates to Edward’s own relationship to One Folgate Street, which he built after a year of trying to find greater self-restraint after experiencing his own tragic loss.