A Curious Beginning

Veronica Speedwell is the narrator and protagonist of A Curious Beginning. She is an accomplished lepidopterist, or a natural scientist who studies butterflies, with several publications to her name. At the novel’s beginning, she intends to further these studies with a trip to Southeast Asia now that her guardian, Aunt Nell, has died. This appeals to Veronica’s adventurous spirit, which she feels has been stifled in the long months spent nursing Aunt Nell. Veronica prefers adventure and travel over the comforts of home, and she enjoys finding different sexual partners on her trips, which she knows to be highly scandalous according to late Victorian social mores. She keeps these liaisons short and casual, refusing to gather any longstanding emotional ties to her partners.

In addition to her liberal attitudes about sexuality and sex for women, Veronica rebels against various other Victorian social norms. She is vocal about her disinterest in motherhood and dislikes fashion trends that privilege form over function. She laments how patriarchal society has limited women’s access to education and knowledge—thereby limiting women’s power to understand a different path for themselves. She drinks liquor, smokes cigars, and holds little concern for what these habits would do for her public reputation.