The Emperor's Babe by Bernardine Evaristo

"To form an attachment is to risk its loss...I have been looking for a simplex, quiet, fidelis girl..."
(p.16)

"Sometimes he curls his arms around me
at night as if I am the most precious
thing in his world, as if I am his soul
and without me he would be empty..."
(p.65)

"What would it be like to see him on top of me?
To have someone respect the Handle with Care
signs written all over my body, to look
into a sweating face that sought my pleasure
as much as it expressed its own."
(p.102)

"...my mind wandered inside itself, where it was happiest.
Was this the highlight of my day?
My week? My month? Was this my life?"
(p.114)

"'Who are you, Severus?'
'I am what I have to be.'"
(p.140)

"Always you ask who I am.
'What do you dream, carissima?'
your head heavy upon my breast.
'To be with you,' I quietly reply.
'To leave a whisper of myself in the world,
my ghost, a magna opera of words.'"
(p.159)

"'For ever is a myth.'
'I believe in for ever. I believe in dreams.
I believe in finding my soul partner,
a life of domestic bliss, then sailing off to Tranny Hades together.'"
(p.190)

"'Why did you like me?'...'I knew you would make my world larger.
It was small, inside and out,
I would discover more of myself through you'"
(p.220)

This novel is the story of a Sudanese daughter whose father sells her to her husband, Felix, a man three times her age and four times her size. At the time (circa 211 AD), Zuleika is only 11 years old. The novel is about her growing up...rather it raises the question of whether she does indeed develop. Even though Felix sends her to classes to become a proper Roman 'lady,' he only spends 3 months a year with her. He has a family of five sons with his mistress the rest of the year. While all her friends around her indulge in extramarital affairs, Zuleika withdraws into herself to seek personal growth...until an Emperor comes along whom she considers her Prince Charming. She expects him to miraculously rescue her in spite of his wife, his children, and her husband. The Miracle never happens. the Emperor dies, leaving her unprotected, and her husband, Felix, poisons her with arsenic.

• Why do girls in bildungsroman novels always expect a "Prince Charming"?
  
• Which is better? A lie that makes you happy or the truth that breaks your heart?
  
• Why are there so few Holden Caufields and so many Zuleika novels? Don't boys have growing up problems too?
  
• Why are we socialized to scrutinize female virtue so much more than male?