Content warning: The Important Quotes section of this guide includes references to childhood trauma, the death of parents, and descriptions of anxiety, panic attacks, and night terrors.

“Anthony Bridgerton had always known he would die young.”

The novel’s opening line establishes the basis for the internal conflict Anthony must overcome and imbues the reader with an overriding awareness of the protagonist’s mortality. The reasons for his anxiety are elaborated in the Prologue and opening the novel this way allows the reader to navigate Anthony’s emotional journey alongside him.

“…when Anthony cradled the Bridgerton pocket watch to his chest (given to him on his eighth birthday by his father, who had received it on his eighth birthday by his father), he liked to think that his relationship with his father was just a little bit special.”

Anthony has his father’s watch, which is not only a family heirloom, but a physical object that helps him feel closer to his father. Ironically, the watch being the item that represents their bond also represents the inevitable passage of time and Anthony’s fraught relationship with his own mortality.

“Unbidden, his hand rose to touch the spot where he’d been stung so many years before.”

Anthony recalls a previous incident where he and Edmund were both stung by bees, and they were both fine. In a moment of foreshadowing, Anthony places his hand on his shoulder, near his collarbone, to indicate where he was stung—the same place where Kate is stung by a bee later in the novel.