The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo makes teaching easy.

Evelyn Hugo Character Analysis

Evelyn Hugo is the novel’s protagonist and the subject of reporter Monique Grant’s interviews. At 79, Evelyn, one of the biggest stars of Old Hollywood, convinces Monique to write her biography—but without disclosing why she chose the low-level reporter specifically. This manipulative, opaque behavior is characteristic of Evelyn, who has sacrificed her name, identity, and morals to achieve fame and success. For instance, Evelyn got married seven times—not for love, but for a greater chance at fame and success. Evelyn’s husbands and daughter, Connor, have all died by the time she gives her interview, however, and being all alone has forced her duality as a loving, caring woman whose ambition leads her to act cruelly and pragmatically. Evelyn’s care for the women who help in her home—first Luisa, then Grace—suggests she holds deep respect for working-class people due to her own childhood of financial insecurity. The challenges of having a same-sex partner in the mid- and late-1900s, building genuine relationships despite the predatory nature of the media, and grieving many deep losses in secret all contribute to Evelyn’s character development. At 79, Evelyn is now vulnerable enough not only to tell the world her whole life story, but to inform Monique of the reality of Monique’s father’s death (Evelyn’s best friend, producer Harry Cameron, killed him in a drunk driving accident). Evelyn’s transformation can also be seen in her eventual decision to stop acting and move to Spain with Celia, her true love, which is only possible after Evelyn realizes that love and honesty make her happier than wealth and fame.

Evelyn Hugo Quotes in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo quotes below are all either spoken by Evelyn Hugo or refer to Evelyn Hugo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ambition vs. Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

There are two men seated next to her, names lost to history, who are staring at her as she looks ahead at the stage. The man next to her is staring at her chest. The one next to him is staring at her thigh. Both of them seem enraptured and hoping to see the tiniest bit farther.

Maybe I’m overthinking that photo, but I’m starting to notice a pattern: Evelyn always leaves you hoping you’ll get just a little bit more. And she always denies you.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Celia St. James, Max Girard, Mick Riva
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“I was gorgeous, even at fourteen. Oh, I know the whole world prefers a woman who doesn’t know her power, but I’m sick of all that. I turned heads. Now, I take no pride in this. I didn’t make my own face. I didn’t give myself this body. But I’m also not going to sit here and say, ‘Aw, shucks. People really thought I was pretty?’ like some kind of prig.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Monique Grant
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

I sit on my couch, open my laptop, and answer some e-mails. I start to order something for dinner. And it is only when I go to put my feet up that I remember there is no coffee table. For the first time since he left, I have not come into this apartment immediately thinking of David.

Instead, what plays in the back of my mind all weekend—from my Friday night in to my Saturday night out and my Sunday morning at the park—isn’t How did my marriage fail? but rather Who the hell was Evelyn Hugo in love with?

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, David
Related Symbols: The Coffee Table
Page Number: 37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

And then, of course, there was the three-page questionnaire I had to fill out about my life until then. What did my father do for a living? What did I like to do in my spare time? Did I have any pets?

When I turned in my honest answers, the researcher read it in one sitting and said, “Oh, no, no, no. This won’t do at all. From now on, your mother died in an accident, leaving your father to raise you. He worked as a builder in Manhattan, and on weekends during the summer, he’d take you to Coney Island. If anyone asks, you love tennis and swimming and you have a Saint Bernard named Roger.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Evelyn’s Father , Evelyn’s Mother
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

I blame pheromones, ultimately.

That and the fact that, at least at first, Don Adler treated me like a person. There are people who see a beautiful flower and rush over to pick it. They want to hold it in their hands, they want to own it. They want the flower’s beauty to be theirs, to be within their possession, their control. Don wasn’t like that. At least, not at first. Don was happy to be near the flower, to look at the flower, to appreciate the flower simply being.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler, Ernie Diaz
Page Number: 62-63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Our maid back in Los Angeles, Paula, made his breakfast every morning. She knew just how he liked it. I realized in that moment that I’d never paid attention.

Frustrated, Don grabbed the pillow from under his head and smashed it over his face, screaming into it.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler, Paula
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:

I had made my way three thousand miles from where I was born. I had found a way to be in the right place at the right time. I’d changed my name. Changed my hair. Changed my teeth and my body. I’d learned how to act. I’d made the right friends. I’d married into a famous family. Most of America knew my name.

And yet…

And yet.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler
Related Symbols: Evelyn’s Blond Hair
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

He opens the parked car’s door and pushes you out.

When he comes crawling to you in tears the next morning, you don’t actually believe him anymore. But now this is just what you do.

The same way you fix the hole in your dress with a safety pin or tape up the crack in a window.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

It was expensive wine. I liked drinking it as if it was water, as if it meant nothing to me. Poor girls from Hell’s Kitchen can’t drink this kind of wine and treat it like it’s nothing.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

“Evelyn!” he yelled.

I liked how the glass between us took the edge off his voice, how it muffled it enough to make him sound far away. I liked the control of being able to decide whether I listened to him at full volume.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler (speaker), Harry Cameron
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

“And now that I don’t have her, and I have more money than I could ever use in this lifetime, and my name is cemented in Hollywood history, and I know how hollow it is, I am kicking myself for every single second I chose it over loving her proudly. But that’s a luxury. You can do that when you’re rich and famous. You can decide that wealth and renown are worthless when you have them. Back then, I still thought I had all the time I needed to do everything I wanted. That if I just played my cards right, I could have it all.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Monique Grant, Celia St. James
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

Rex put out his hand, and I shook it.

“Well, I should be going,” he said, checking his watch. “I have a date with a particularly eager young lady, and I’d hate to keep her waiting.” He buttoned his coat as I stood up. “When should we tie the knot?” he asked.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Rex North (speaker)
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

Harry laughed and put out his hand. I shook it. “Once again, Evelyn, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Harry Cameron (speaker), Celia St. James, Rex North
Page Number: 243
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 45 Quotes

What Max was talking about was a graphic portrayal of female desire. And my gut instinct was that I loved the idea. I mean, the thought of filming a graphic sex scene with Don was about as arousing to me as a bowl of bran flakes. But I wanted to push the envelope. I wanted to show a woman getting off. I liked the idea of showing a woman having sex because she wanted to be pleased instead of being desperate to please. So in a moment of excitement, I grabbed my coat, put out my hand, and said, “I’m in.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James, Harry Cameron, Don Adler, Max Girard, Rex North
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 46 Quotes

“People were shocked by the representation of a woman wanting to get fucked. And while I’m aware of the crassness of my language, it’s really the only way to describe it. Patricia was not a woman who wanted to make love. She wanted to get fucked. And we showed that. And people hated how much they loved it.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 54 Quotes

“Did you ever love me?”

“Yes, I did. When you made love to me and you made me feel desire and you took good care of my daughter and I believed that you saw something in me that no one else saw. When I believed you had an insight and a talent that no one else had. I loved you very much.”

“So you are not a lesbian,” he said.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Max Girard (speaker), Celia St. James, Connor Cameron
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 57 Quotes

With her blond hair and her face thinning out, I was starting to fear that she looked more like me than Harry. Sure, conventionally speaking, she would be more attractive if she looked like me. But she should look like Harry. The world should give us that.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Harry Cameron, Connor Cameron
Related Symbols: Evelyn’s Blond Hair
Page Number: 337
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 59 Quotes

Robert always claimed that he married me because he would do anything for Celia. But I think he did it, in at least some small part, because it gave him a chance to have a family. He was never going to settle down with one woman. And Spanish women proved to be just as enchanted by him as American ones had been. But this system, this family, was one he could be a part of, and I think he knew that when he signed up.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James, Connor Cameron, Robert Jamison, Robert Jamison
Page Number: 344
Explanation and Analysis:

“I think being yourself—your true, entire self—is always going to feel like you’re swimming upstream.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But if the last few years with you have been any indication, I think it also feels like taking your bra off at the end of the day.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James (speaker)
Page Number: 346
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 66 Quotes

No one is all good or all bad. I know this, of course. I had to learn it at a young age. But sometimes it’s easy to forget just how true it is. That it applies to everyone.

Until you’re sitting in front of the woman who put your father’s dead body in the driver’s seat of a car to save the reputation of her best friend—and you realize she held on to a letter for almost three decades because she wanted to know how much you were loved.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Harry Cameron, Monique’s Father/The Passenger, Monique’s Mother
Page Number: 366-67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 68 Quotes

She smiles for the camera, her brown eyes sparkling in a different way from anything I’ve ever seen in person. She seems at peace somehow, in full display, and I wonder if the real Evelyn isn’t the woman I’ve been talking to for the past two weeks but, instead, the one I see before me right now. Even at almost eighty, she commands a room in a way I’ve never seen before. A star is always and forever a star.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo
Page Number: 372
Explanation and Analysis:

Evelyn was never going to let the thing that made her be the thing to destroy her. She was never going to let anything, even a part of her body, have that sort of power.

Evelyn is going to die when she wants to.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Harry Cameron, Mick Riva
Page Number: 375
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 69 Quotes

“It was almost as if when I met him, I met this other side of myself. Someone who understood me and made me feel safe. It wasn’t passionate, really. It was never about ripping each other’s clothes off. We just knew we could be happy together. We knew we could raise a child.”

Related Characters: Monique’s Mother (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Monique Grant, Harry Cameron, Monique’s Father/The Passenger
Page Number: 379
Explanation and Analysis:

Maybe I’ll leave that part out completely. I think I’d be willing to lie about Evelyn’s life to protect my mother. I think I’d be willing to omit the truth from public knowledge in the interest of the happiness and sanity of a person I love dearly.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Monique’s Mother
Page Number: 380
Explanation and Analysis:
Evelyn and Me Quotes

I said, “Doesn’t it bother you? That your husbands have become such a headline story, so often mentioned, that they have nearly eclipsed your work and yourself? That all anyone talks about when they talk about you are the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo?”

And her answer was quintessential Evelyn.

“No,” she told me. “Because they are just husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo. And anyway, I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Monique Grant (speaker), Celia St. James
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo LitChart as a printable PDF.
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Evelyn Hugo Quotes in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo quotes below are all either spoken by Evelyn Hugo or refer to Evelyn Hugo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ambition vs. Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

There are two men seated next to her, names lost to history, who are staring at her as she looks ahead at the stage. The man next to her is staring at her chest. The one next to him is staring at her thigh. Both of them seem enraptured and hoping to see the tiniest bit farther.

Maybe I’m overthinking that photo, but I’m starting to notice a pattern: Evelyn always leaves you hoping you’ll get just a little bit more. And she always denies you.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Celia St. James, Max Girard, Mick Riva
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“I was gorgeous, even at fourteen. Oh, I know the whole world prefers a woman who doesn’t know her power, but I’m sick of all that. I turned heads. Now, I take no pride in this. I didn’t make my own face. I didn’t give myself this body. But I’m also not going to sit here and say, ‘Aw, shucks. People really thought I was pretty?’ like some kind of prig.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Monique Grant
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

I sit on my couch, open my laptop, and answer some e-mails. I start to order something for dinner. And it is only when I go to put my feet up that I remember there is no coffee table. For the first time since he left, I have not come into this apartment immediately thinking of David.

Instead, what plays in the back of my mind all weekend—from my Friday night in to my Saturday night out and my Sunday morning at the park—isn’t How did my marriage fail? but rather Who the hell was Evelyn Hugo in love with?

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, David
Related Symbols: The Coffee Table
Page Number: 37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

And then, of course, there was the three-page questionnaire I had to fill out about my life until then. What did my father do for a living? What did I like to do in my spare time? Did I have any pets?

When I turned in my honest answers, the researcher read it in one sitting and said, “Oh, no, no, no. This won’t do at all. From now on, your mother died in an accident, leaving your father to raise you. He worked as a builder in Manhattan, and on weekends during the summer, he’d take you to Coney Island. If anyone asks, you love tennis and swimming and you have a Saint Bernard named Roger.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Evelyn’s Father , Evelyn’s Mother
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

I blame pheromones, ultimately.

That and the fact that, at least at first, Don Adler treated me like a person. There are people who see a beautiful flower and rush over to pick it. They want to hold it in their hands, they want to own it. They want the flower’s beauty to be theirs, to be within their possession, their control. Don wasn’t like that. At least, not at first. Don was happy to be near the flower, to look at the flower, to appreciate the flower simply being.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler, Ernie Diaz
Page Number: 62-63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Our maid back in Los Angeles, Paula, made his breakfast every morning. She knew just how he liked it. I realized in that moment that I’d never paid attention.

Frustrated, Don grabbed the pillow from under his head and smashed it over his face, screaming into it.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler, Paula
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:

I had made my way three thousand miles from where I was born. I had found a way to be in the right place at the right time. I’d changed my name. Changed my hair. Changed my teeth and my body. I’d learned how to act. I’d made the right friends. I’d married into a famous family. Most of America knew my name.

And yet…

And yet.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler
Related Symbols: Evelyn’s Blond Hair
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

He opens the parked car’s door and pushes you out.

When he comes crawling to you in tears the next morning, you don’t actually believe him anymore. But now this is just what you do.

The same way you fix the hole in your dress with a safety pin or tape up the crack in a window.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

It was expensive wine. I liked drinking it as if it was water, as if it meant nothing to me. Poor girls from Hell’s Kitchen can’t drink this kind of wine and treat it like it’s nothing.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

“Evelyn!” he yelled.

I liked how the glass between us took the edge off his voice, how it muffled it enough to make him sound far away. I liked the control of being able to decide whether I listened to him at full volume.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler (speaker), Harry Cameron
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

“And now that I don’t have her, and I have more money than I could ever use in this lifetime, and my name is cemented in Hollywood history, and I know how hollow it is, I am kicking myself for every single second I chose it over loving her proudly. But that’s a luxury. You can do that when you’re rich and famous. You can decide that wealth and renown are worthless when you have them. Back then, I still thought I had all the time I needed to do everything I wanted. That if I just played my cards right, I could have it all.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Monique Grant, Celia St. James
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

Rex put out his hand, and I shook it.

“Well, I should be going,” he said, checking his watch. “I have a date with a particularly eager young lady, and I’d hate to keep her waiting.” He buttoned his coat as I stood up. “When should we tie the knot?” he asked.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Rex North (speaker)
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

Harry laughed and put out his hand. I shook it. “Once again, Evelyn, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Harry Cameron (speaker), Celia St. James, Rex North
Page Number: 243
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 45 Quotes

What Max was talking about was a graphic portrayal of female desire. And my gut instinct was that I loved the idea. I mean, the thought of filming a graphic sex scene with Don was about as arousing to me as a bowl of bran flakes. But I wanted to push the envelope. I wanted to show a woman getting off. I liked the idea of showing a woman having sex because she wanted to be pleased instead of being desperate to please. So in a moment of excitement, I grabbed my coat, put out my hand, and said, “I’m in.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James, Harry Cameron, Don Adler, Max Girard, Rex North
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 46 Quotes

“People were shocked by the representation of a woman wanting to get fucked. And while I’m aware of the crassness of my language, it’s really the only way to describe it. Patricia was not a woman who wanted to make love. She wanted to get fucked. And we showed that. And people hated how much they loved it.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 54 Quotes

“Did you ever love me?”

“Yes, I did. When you made love to me and you made me feel desire and you took good care of my daughter and I believed that you saw something in me that no one else saw. When I believed you had an insight and a talent that no one else had. I loved you very much.”

“So you are not a lesbian,” he said.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Max Girard (speaker), Celia St. James, Connor Cameron
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 57 Quotes

With her blond hair and her face thinning out, I was starting to fear that she looked more like me than Harry. Sure, conventionally speaking, she would be more attractive if she looked like me. But she should look like Harry. The world should give us that.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Harry Cameron, Connor Cameron
Related Symbols: Evelyn’s Blond Hair
Page Number: 337
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 59 Quotes

Robert always claimed that he married me because he would do anything for Celia. But I think he did it, in at least some small part, because it gave him a chance to have a family. He was never going to settle down with one woman. And Spanish women proved to be just as enchanted by him as American ones had been. But this system, this family, was one he could be a part of, and I think he knew that when he signed up.

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James, Connor Cameron, Robert Jamison, Robert Jamison
Page Number: 344
Explanation and Analysis:

“I think being yourself—your true, entire self—is always going to feel like you’re swimming upstream.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But if the last few years with you have been any indication, I think it also feels like taking your bra off at the end of the day.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Celia St. James (speaker)
Page Number: 346
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 66 Quotes

No one is all good or all bad. I know this, of course. I had to learn it at a young age. But sometimes it’s easy to forget just how true it is. That it applies to everyone.

Until you’re sitting in front of the woman who put your father’s dead body in the driver’s seat of a car to save the reputation of her best friend—and you realize she held on to a letter for almost three decades because she wanted to know how much you were loved.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Harry Cameron, Monique’s Father/The Passenger, Monique’s Mother
Page Number: 366-67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 68 Quotes

She smiles for the camera, her brown eyes sparkling in a different way from anything I’ve ever seen in person. She seems at peace somehow, in full display, and I wonder if the real Evelyn isn’t the woman I’ve been talking to for the past two weeks but, instead, the one I see before me right now. Even at almost eighty, she commands a room in a way I’ve never seen before. A star is always and forever a star.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo
Page Number: 372
Explanation and Analysis:

Evelyn was never going to let the thing that made her be the thing to destroy her. She was never going to let anything, even a part of her body, have that sort of power.

Evelyn is going to die when she wants to.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Harry Cameron, Mick Riva
Page Number: 375
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 69 Quotes

“It was almost as if when I met him, I met this other side of myself. Someone who understood me and made me feel safe. It wasn’t passionate, really. It was never about ripping each other’s clothes off. We just knew we could be happy together. We knew we could raise a child.”

Related Characters: Monique’s Mother (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Monique Grant, Harry Cameron, Monique’s Father/The Passenger
Page Number: 379
Explanation and Analysis:

Maybe I’ll leave that part out completely. I think I’d be willing to lie about Evelyn’s life to protect my mother. I think I’d be willing to omit the truth from public knowledge in the interest of the happiness and sanity of a person I love dearly.

Related Characters: Monique Grant (speaker), Evelyn Hugo, Monique’s Mother
Page Number: 380
Explanation and Analysis:
Evelyn and Me Quotes

I said, “Doesn’t it bother you? That your husbands have become such a headline story, so often mentioned, that they have nearly eclipsed your work and yourself? That all anyone talks about when they talk about you are the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo?”

And her answer was quintessential Evelyn.

“No,” she told me. “Because they are just husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo. And anyway, I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.”

Related Characters: Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Monique Grant (speaker), Celia St. James
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis: