Though the Moon of Nizam is a fictional jewel, it was inspired in part by the Patiala Necklace. Created by the House of Cartier in the 1920s for Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, the Patiala Necklace included the seventh-largest diamond in the world, amid a setting of 2,930 diamonds and rubies. The entire necklace went missing in 1946. The main diamond came up for auction by an anonymous seller in Geneva in 1982, and it was bought by the De Beers Company and renamed on their behalf. In 1998, a representative of Cartier found the remnants of the setting in a secondhand jewelry shop in London. In addition to the missing De Beers diamond, most of the significant stones, including several important Burmese rubies, were also missing and have yet to resurface publicly. The House of Cartier has restored the ransacked necklace by replacing the missing gems with synthetic stones, and they have kept it for their archives and traveling display.
The Maharani of Baroda is a creation of fiction. But for a deeper understanding of ghoonghat and stridhan, as well as the North Indian life of a maharani as it was lived, I recommend Maharani Gayatri Devi’s autobiography, A Princess Remembers. As the fourth maharani of Jaipur, Devi was known as the “Indian Jackie Kennedy” for her beauty and style. Indeed, Jackie Kennedy was the maharani’s guest in Jaipur during Kennedy’s famous tour of India in 1962. Devi was elected to the Indian Parliament and served as the representative for Jaipur.
The character of Ambrose Quincy and his many indiscretions and charms are fictional. However, I am indebted to the travel journals Amasa Stone Mather kept during his trip around the world in 1907. These volumes were privately published by his father, Samuel Mather, and 150 copies were gifted to friends in 1910. They became very dear to his family after Amasa died of influenza in 1920. I am thankful to this primary source for providing inspiration for Ambrose’s letters.
The story Ambrose retells at the gymkhana owes a debt to the Brothers Grimm tale The Frog Prince.
I was aided by a small army of experts while writing this book, but any mistakes or inaccuracies are entirely my own.
Many thanks to my friend Grosvie Cooley for facilitating my connection to the Western Reserve Historical Society.
Particular thanks to Ann Sindelar of the Cleveland History Center, who provided me with my many requested boxes of issues of Town Topics and The Bystander, the People and Us Weekly magazines of 1920s Cleveland.
Special gratitude to Patty Edmondson and Danielle Peck of the Cleveland History Center, who allowed me access to the costume collection archives, where I spent a day in the vault amidst 1920s splendor.
Many thanks to Dr. Jim Edmonson of the Dittrick Medical History Museum at Case Western Reserve University, where I spent time down in the stacks learning about burn treatments, pain management, and crush injury protocol in the 1920s.
Grateful thanks to Stephen Josh Knerly, Esq., who schooled me in provenance law and the ethical guidelines surrounding potentially stolen antiquities.
Legal ninja and estate expert Jennifer Savage, Esq., patiently answered my many questions, asked through a hazy recollection of my wills and estates class in law school. Many thanks for her kindness and generosity.
Appreciation and thanks to the charming Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, who thoroughly answered my many prying questions about her job as curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Additionally, I’m blessed with accomplished friends, on whom I leaned shamelessly, though any errors are solely my own.
Britt Frome, orthopedic surgeon and horsewoman extraordinaire, guided me through horse bloodlines and the ramifications of crush injury with equal expertise. Susan Jarros gifted me with an invaluable crash course in the history of provenance law and served as a trusted resource. Abigail Shapard brought her knowledge to the auction chapter and made it brighter and more accurate. Grateful thanks to these impressive women of many talents.
I offer sincere thanks to the selection committee for the Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence program, the board of trustees, and the incredible staff at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, Massachusetts. I spent two weeks in 2016 working through edits for this book in Edith Wharton’s very bedroom, where she did her writing. There are few more productive or magical places.
Humble thanks and love to dear friends and generous prereaders Halley Moore and Irina Reyn, who gave me the great gifts of their time, attention, and insights from their fine minds and saved me from myself in multiple ways.
Elizabeth Kaplan is an insightful reader and advisor, as well as my stellar agent. Many thanks to her for all her efforts on behalf of this book and my writing in general.
Trish Todd is my excellent editor, whose careful, guiding eye made this book better and stronger than it was. Grateful thanks to her and her team for all they do, especially Kaitlin Olson, Jessica Roth, and Meredith Vilarello.
Purest love and gratitude in abundance to Mac and Flora—for you guys, I would.
And true love and devotion to Sandy, who hands me the matches and keeps the spark. I’m grateful for that and for so much more. Thank you.
Touchstone Reading Group Guide
The Necklace
This reading group guide for The Necklace includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Claire McMillan. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
Always the black sheep of the tight-knit Quincy clan, Nell is cautious when she’s summoned to the elegantly shabby family manor after her great-aunt Loulou’s death, where she learns that she’s been made the executor of the estate. An outsider in the eyes of the tight-knit Quincy clan, Nell’s cold reception from the family grows chillier when they learn that Loulou has left Nell a fantastically valuable heirloom: a stunningly ornate necklace from India. More than just a piece of jewelry, the necklace links Nell to a long-buried family secret. This engrossing novel interweaves a present-day family drama with an ill-fated Prohibition-era love triangle and delves into the secrets, passions, and tragedies of a uniquely American family.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. When we learn that Nell has inherited a necklace, we can’t help but immediately form an image of it in our minds. Do you recall how you initially pictured the necklace (before Nell discovers it and describes its ornate appearance in full)? How do descriptions of the Moon of Nizam compare with what you originally envisioned?
2. The novel alternates between two timelines: a present-day narrative and a storyline set in the Roaring Twenties. Which setting and/or plot did you enjoy more as a reader, and why?